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Show HN: Phaser – Trello for software development, with Vim built in

68 points by hpvic03 13y ago

hpvic03 13y ago
Developer here. I built Phaser to scratch my own itch. I took inspiration from both Trello and Pivotal Tracker, and I think the result is pretty good. Please let me know what you think.
- volkk 13y ago
  i think its neat. i use vim religiously and can't type/navigate without hjkl anymore, so even though this is for a small niche, its cool
- akkartik 13y ago
  I signed up just to play with the in-browser vim, which is cool. 1. I can't bring up the editor on firefox. Clicking the '+' in a phase doesn't bring up the editor, etc. 2. :w doesn't work on chrome either, it gives this error: "cannot call method set of undefined" http://imgur.com/hnS1AMA http://imgur.com/hnS1AMA 3. But still it looks like the story arc was saved: http://imgur.com/JUiuKbw http://imgur.com/JUiuKbw and there was a 'saving..' message on the status bar suggesting that there's an autosaver. However, after reloading the page, sad face: http://imgur.com/aLSMgsE http://imgur.com/aLSMgsE
  - hpvic03 13y ago
    Give me a sec to check it in Firefox. It's very alpha and I've been doing everything in Chrome. Second Edit: Use the tab key instead of spaces to create indentation. That's what is causing the "set of undefined" error. Edit: If you reload, then click "New Stories +", it should work. The + button on the individual phases is not working right now in Firefox. Willfix.
    - wavesounds 13y ago
      What did you use to integrate vim? Is it something open source or proprietary?
      - hpvic03 13y ago
        I used Code Mirror to get the Vim functionality: http://codemirror.net/ http://codemirror.net/ . It's open source.
        mattl 13y ago
        So, its Vim keybindings, not actually Vim?
        hpvic03 13y ago
        That is correct.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
nedwin 13y ago
"it's trello for software development". I think that's called Trello.
- hpvic03 13y ago
  Phaser does some nice things that Trello doesn't do that are specifically related to software. For example you can group Stories into "Arcs", which are like feature sets. This way you can filter stories by Arc and quickly see the progress of each individual Arc. Additionally, Phaser allows you to quickly create many stories in a single text box, which is great for when you need quickly add a new feature set. There are more examples which I'm sure you'll see if you actually try the product.
  - ChristianBundy 13y ago
    Seems like a painfully small niche of people who will use this, but good luck!
  - rgbrgb 13y ago
    >>There are more examples which I'm sure you'll see if you actually try the product. I think he's pointing out that Trello is designed for software development as well. This is a problem with the pitch that will prevent people from trying your product.
    - hpvic03 13y ago
      Trello isn't specifically made for software project management, but I see your point. I'm not sure exactly what a better pitch would be. The one I have in my head is that Phaser is "Trello meets Pivotal Tracker".
      - notJim 13y ago
        It's not clear what Phaser has that Trello doesn't, other than more specific names for things, and the Arc idea, which doesn't seem specific to software, other than the name.
rwz 13y ago
Love the design.
tmock12 13y ago
I like the ability to slurp in stories from VIM. Thats very slick.
siegecraft 13y ago
Would be nice if there was a more frictionless way to try it out, either via some sort of oauth login or a demo link
- hpvic03 13y ago
  That's a good idea. Thanks for the heads up.
mushishi 13y ago
Didn't try yet, but would you mind considering to provide this as product that is installable on private network?
- hpvic03 13y ago
  That would definitely be an option.
  - rMBP 13y ago
    I second that request. It looks really nice, but SaaS - free or not - is a no go for projects that involves sensitive or classified data.
cjdulberger 13y ago
I love the minimalist design, it's a truly beautiful product. Congrats!
bitJericho 13y ago
Maybe this product makes sense if you know what trello is?
- hpvic03 13y ago
  Sure. Or if you know about kanban boards, which have been around for a long time.
fishtoaster 13y ago
It's interesting, but the vim editor has the same problems that most near-vim tools have: my muscle memory (trained with my vimrc) is all wrong. Escape is an awkward key, so I exit inset mode with jk and kj. $ and ^ are weird, so I jump around the line with L and H. My leader key, my plugins, etc are all sorely missing, and trip me up here way more than a purely non-vim interface. What I'd really love would be a web tool like this with a plugin for actual vim. I currently use a TODO.txt file (kept on dropbox) that I open with <leader>et for my personal task managment. If there were a plugin that would let me edit tasks like Phaser (indentation-based) in real vim, but then could be displayed and further managed by your web interface, I'd love it.
- hpvic03 13y ago
  I understand where you're coming from. Keeping a text file synced with the web interface would be super cool. It would certainly be a fun engineering challenge. I'll keep that idea in mind.
- rjzzleep 13y ago
  hehe, i had a feeling this would be the case. vi is not vim. reminds me of this: http://haldean.org/docstore/?vim-problems http://haldean.org/docstore/?vim-problems
joebo 13y ago
To target a broader market, you might consider dropping the "Vim built in" and explain it as "Create stories efficiently in plain text with our editor that uses familiar key bindings from Vim. Alternatively, use your favorite editor and paste the text in. Phaser's story parser will slurp them up for you."
owenversteeg 13y ago
Hmm. A few comments: - I love Trello and have used it for years. It's probably my favorite piece of software. You couldn't pay me to switch. I use it for software development, by the way, and it works fine. - I don't use Vim. (I use ed, and yes I'm serious.) - The site not being responsive is a turnoff. Trello is responsive. Other than that, I think I'd use it if Trello didn't exist.
gedrap 13y ago
I love the idea and it wakes my inner nerd up. It looks cool. However, I really wish there was some tour. It's quite confusing initially.
softbuilder 13y ago
I skimmed (busy day, sorry). Is this a web front end for Cucumber stories?
- hpvic03 13y ago
  Basically, yes. It's like Pivotal Tracker as a custom kanban board.
  - softbuilder 13y ago
    It's an interesting concept. Good luck!
encoderer 13y ago
I think naming Trello is a dicey move. Trello is a great product. It's incredibly simple -- a huge asset for most users -- and very well implemented. I spent about 60 seconds looking at your homepage. I didn't convert. Here's my impression: You say it's like Trello. So I like that. And then I see a screen that is much more complicated. I glance at it. Then skip past. Ok, phases. Phaser. Ok. So it's like, a way to keep tasks separate without just using a separate task board. Ok. Moving on, now there's "arcs"? I see what you did there, with "story arc" and all. But wait, now my super simple trello issues are grouped into phases and arcs? And if I use this as part of my bigger process, then my phases and arcs are split or spliced into my sprints. Also, there's already an agile term for what you're calling "arcs" -- epics. But I don't give up. I want to get it. I go back up to the top screenshot. Ok, it's 3 lists, just like Trello. But wait. Why is the first column green? And why is the top option bold? Do you select it? And then it changes what happens in the other 2 columns? But that's not like trello at all. And it's also not intuitive I don't think. And one list is "arcs" but the other 2 are "phases"? And what are the "This week: 18..."? Number of stories completed? created? Why do I need to see that on every single page? Also, I skipped right over the Vim section. It seems pointless to me. That is solving a problem I do not have. But hey, I can see others may use it or it could even just be a bit of a gimmicky feature that does get it some attention. Anyway, and more important than all that, congrats on shipping!
udkl 13y ago
No. Why !?
baseh 13y ago
Please consider adding SSL page for signup and login
kiernan 13y ago
It wasn't clear to me what the 'I prefer vim' option in the signup form is for. Does it control a setting or is it just a survey?
devniel 13y ago
phaser? http://phaser.io/ http://phaser.io/
memming 13y ago
I'm getting "TypeError: Cannot call method 'set' of undefined" when trying to save...
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
codebeaker 13y ago
Trello, that tool my company has been successfully using for software development for years, which already supports vimish (forgive me!) movement and edit keybindings? I'm not seeing the point here, Trello is excellent, and already great for software teams.

68 points by hpvic03 13y ago

Developer here. I built Phaser to scratch my own itch. I took inspiration from both Trello and Pivotal Tracker, and I think the result is pretty good. Please let me know what you think.

volkk 13y ago
i think its neat. i use vim religiously and can't type/navigate without hjkl anymore, so even though this is for a small niche, its cool
akkartik 13y ago
I signed up just to play with the in-browser vim, which is cool. 1. I can't bring up the editor on firefox. Clicking the '+' in a phase doesn't bring up the editor, etc. 2. :w doesn't work on chrome either, it gives this error: "cannot call method set of undefined" http://imgur.com/hnS1AMA http://imgur.com/hnS1AMA 3. But still it looks like the story arc was saved: http://imgur.com/JUiuKbw http://imgur.com/JUiuKbw and there was a 'saving..' message on the status bar suggesting that there's an autosaver. However, after reloading the page, sad face: http://imgur.com/aLSMgsE http://imgur.com/aLSMgsE
- hpvic03 13y ago
  Give me a sec to check it in Firefox. It's very alpha and I've been doing everything in Chrome. Second Edit: Use the tab key instead of spaces to create indentation. That's what is causing the "set of undefined" error. Edit: If you reload, then click "New Stories +", it should work. The + button on the individual phases is not working right now in Firefox. Willfix.
  - wavesounds 13y ago
    What did you use to integrate vim? Is it something open source or proprietary?
    - hpvic03 13y ago
      I used Code Mirror to get the Vim functionality: http://codemirror.net/ http://codemirror.net/ . It's open source.
      - mattl 13y ago
        So, its Vim keybindings, not actually Vim?
        hpvic03 13y ago
        That is correct.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]

nedwin 13y ago

"it's trello for software development". I think that's called Trello.

hpvic03 13y ago
Phaser does some nice things that Trello doesn't do that are specifically related to software. For example you can group Stories into "Arcs", which are like feature sets. This way you can filter stories by Arc and quickly see the progress of each individual Arc. Additionally, Phaser allows you to quickly create many stories in a single text box, which is great for when you need quickly add a new feature set. There are more examples which I'm sure you'll see if you actually try the product.
- ChristianBundy 13y ago
  Seems like a painfully small niche of people who will use this, but good luck!
- rgbrgb 13y ago
  >>There are more examples which I'm sure you'll see if you actually try the product. I think he's pointing out that Trello is designed for software development as well. This is a problem with the pitch that will prevent people from trying your product.
  - hpvic03 13y ago
    Trello isn't specifically made for software project management, but I see your point. I'm not sure exactly what a better pitch would be. The one I have in my head is that Phaser is "Trello meets Pivotal Tracker".
    - notJim 13y ago
      It's not clear what Phaser has that Trello doesn't, other than more specific names for things, and the Arc idea, which doesn't seem specific to software, other than the name.

rwz 13y ago

Love the design.

tmock12 13y ago

I like the ability to slurp in stories from VIM. Thats very slick.

siegecraft 13y ago

Would be nice if there was a more frictionless way to try it out, either via some sort of oauth login or a demo link

hpvic03 13y ago
That's a good idea. Thanks for the heads up.

mushishi 13y ago

Didn't try yet, but would you mind considering to provide this as product that is installable on private network?

hpvic03 13y ago
That would definitely be an option.
- rMBP 13y ago
  I second that request. It looks really nice, but SaaS - free or not - is a no go for projects that involves sensitive or classified data.

cjdulberger 13y ago

I love the minimalist design, it's a truly beautiful product. Congrats!

bitJericho 13y ago

Maybe this product makes sense if you know what trello is?

hpvic03 13y ago
Sure. Or if you know about kanban boards, which have been around for a long time.

fishtoaster 13y ago

It's interesting, but the vim editor has the same problems that most near-vim tools have: my muscle memory (trained with my vimrc) is all wrong. Escape is an awkward key, so I exit inset mode with jk and kj. $ and ^ are weird, so I jump around the line with L and H. My leader key, my plugins, etc are all sorely missing, and trip me up here way more than a purely non-vim interface. What I'd really love would be a web tool like this with a plugin for actual vim. I currently use a TODO.txt file (kept on dropbox) that I open with <leader>et for my personal task managment. If there were a plugin that would let me edit tasks like Phaser (indentation-based) in real vim, but then could be displayed and further managed by your web interface, I'd love it.

hpvic03 13y ago
I understand where you're coming from. Keeping a text file synced with the web interface would be super cool. It would certainly be a fun engineering challenge. I'll keep that idea in mind.
rjzzleep 13y ago
hehe, i had a feeling this would be the case. vi is not vim. reminds me of this: http://haldean.org/docstore/?vim-problems http://haldean.org/docstore/?vim-problems

joebo 13y ago

To target a broader market, you might consider dropping the "Vim built in" and explain it as "Create stories efficiently in plain text with our editor that uses familiar key bindings from Vim. Alternatively, use your favorite editor and paste the text in. Phaser's story parser will slurp them up for you."

owenversteeg 13y ago

Hmm. A few comments: - I love Trello and have used it for years. It's probably my favorite piece of software. You couldn't pay me to switch. I use it for software development, by the way, and it works fine. - I don't use Vim. (I use ed, and yes I'm serious.) - The site not being responsive is a turnoff. Trello is responsive. Other than that, I think I'd use it if Trello didn't exist.

gedrap 13y ago

I love the idea and it wakes my inner nerd up. It looks cool. However, I really wish there was some tour. It's quite confusing initially.

softbuilder 13y ago

I skimmed (busy day, sorry). Is this a web front end for Cucumber stories?

hpvic03 13y ago
Basically, yes. It's like Pivotal Tracker as a custom kanban board.
- softbuilder 13y ago
  It's an interesting concept. Good luck!

encoderer 13y ago

I think naming Trello is a dicey move. Trello is a great product. It's incredibly simple -- a huge asset for most users -- and very well implemented. I spent about 60 seconds looking at your homepage. I didn't convert. Here's my impression: You say it's like Trello. So I like that. And then I see a screen that is much more complicated. I glance at it. Then skip past. Ok, phases. Phaser. Ok. So it's like, a way to keep tasks separate without just using a separate task board. Ok. Moving on, now there's "arcs"? I see what you did there, with "story arc" and all. But wait, now my super simple trello issues are grouped into phases and arcs? And if I use this as part of my bigger process, then my phases and arcs are split or spliced into my sprints. Also, there's already an agile term for what you're calling "arcs" -- epics. But I don't give up. I want to get it. I go back up to the top screenshot. Ok, it's 3 lists, just like Trello. But wait. Why is the first column green? And why is the top option bold? Do you select it? And then it changes what happens in the other 2 columns? But that's not like trello at all. And it's also not intuitive I don't think. And one list is "arcs" but the other 2 are "phases"? And what are the "This week: 18..."? Number of stories completed? created? Why do I need to see that on every single page? Also, I skipped right over the Vim section. It seems pointless to me. That is solving a problem I do not have. But hey, I can see others may use it or it could even just be a bit of a gimmicky feature that does get it some attention. Anyway, and more important than all that, congrats on shipping!

udkl 13y ago

No. Why !?

baseh 13y ago

Please consider adding SSL page for signup and login

kiernan 13y ago

It wasn't clear to me what the 'I prefer vim' option in the signup form is for. Does it control a setting or is it just a survey?

devniel 13y ago

phaser? http://phaser.io/ http://phaser.io/

memming 13y ago

I'm getting "TypeError: Cannot call method 'set' of undefined" when trying to save...

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

codebeaker 13y ago

Trello, that tool my company has been successfully using for software development for years, which already supports vimish (forgive me!) movement and edit keybindings? I'm not seeing the point here, Trello is excellent, and already great for software teams.