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Author here. Happy to answer your questions in this thread. Except for bug reports or feature requests, file those at https://github.com/sdegutis/hydra/issues

Author here. Happy to answer your questions in this thread. Except for bug reports or feature requests, file those at https://github.com/sdegutis/hydra/issues https://github.com/sdegutis/hydra/issues instead.

PieSquared 12y ago
Is this project open-source, under some open-source license? Back when we saw it a few weeks ago, it looked like it was an open-source project, but now it looks like you're charging money for it... but the source is on GitHub? Could you clarify the license / money situation?
- sdegutis 12y ago
  I'm writing a blog post to clarify this.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
superchink 12y ago
Great work! Love the fast iteration; been using it since I found it on HN, and can't live without it. Question: what does the license buy you? Are there limitations on usage or functionality without al license? Apologies if it's explained, but I couldn't find details on the site or github.
- sdegutis 12y ago
  It'll show a window periodically (without stealing key focus) to remind you to buy a license.
  - superchink 12y ago
    Makes perfect sense. Thanks for making it not too intrusive; not stealing key focus is a huge "nice guy" move. License purchased.
cbsmith 12y ago
The thing I keep wondering about with this project is to what extent you can't already do this all with AppleScript, and to the extent you can't, why you wouldn't just add events/routines for AppleScript to get the same effect. Isn't this mostly just a Lua scripting bridge?
- sdegutis 12y ago
  You might be able to do a lot of the same stuff in AppleScript, but that's AppleScript and this is Lua, which to me personally is a huge advantage. And it's not quite a Lua "scripting bridge". That term usually implies automatic bridging between two programming languages, such as Lua and Objc, but all our bridging is manual.
  - cbsmith 12y ago
    The "Scripting Bridge" is a way to tie any language in to the Apple Event messaging architecture. I guess you can think of it as bridging Lua to Objc, but it is much more language agnostic than that. This is how you can have automation scripts on OS X writing in Ruby/Python/JavaScript/etc. I get that your bridging is manual, but if you built on top of the scripting bridge you'd have something much more general, and your "manual" bridging could just be pure Lua code.
    - sdegutis 12y ago
      Having used "Scripting Bridge" for a few years now, I'm keenly aware of its very real and common caveats, and I'm not comfortable using it in any serious project. If users would like to write something like Hydra using only LuaObjC[1] or something similar, they're free to. But manually bridging function calls gives Hydra a robustness and stability that such an automatic bridge can never truly have. [1] https://github.com/darrenclark/LuaObjC https://github.com/darrenclark/LuaObjC
      - cbsmith 12y ago
        I'm sure you wouldn't have bothered with the project if you didn't perceive it as being a better approach. I'm just ignorant to what the advantages are. Is the bridge really unstable? I hadn't noticed that with my admittedly limited exposure.

PieSquared 12y ago

Is this project open-source, under some open-source license? Back when we saw it a few weeks ago, it looked like it was an open-source project, but now it looks like you're charging money for it... but the source is on GitHub? Could you clarify the license / money situation?

sdegutis 12y ago
I'm writing a blog post to clarify this.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

superchink 12y ago

Great work! Love the fast iteration; been using it since I found it on HN, and can't live without it. Question: what does the license buy you? Are there limitations on usage or functionality without al license? Apologies if it's explained, but I couldn't find details on the site or github.

sdegutis 12y ago
It'll show a window periodically (without stealing key focus) to remind you to buy a license.
- superchink 12y ago
  Makes perfect sense. Thanks for making it not too intrusive; not stealing key focus is a huge "nice guy" move. License purchased.

cbsmith 12y ago

The thing I keep wondering about with this project is to what extent you can't already do this all with AppleScript, and to the extent you can't, why you wouldn't just add events/routines for AppleScript to get the same effect. Isn't this mostly just a Lua scripting bridge?

sdegutis 12y ago
You might be able to do a lot of the same stuff in AppleScript, but that's AppleScript and this is Lua, which to me personally is a huge advantage. And it's not quite a Lua "scripting bridge". That term usually implies automatic bridging between two programming languages, such as Lua and Objc, but all our bridging is manual.
- cbsmith 12y ago
  The "Scripting Bridge" is a way to tie any language in to the Apple Event messaging architecture. I guess you can think of it as bridging Lua to Objc, but it is much more language agnostic than that. This is how you can have automation scripts on OS X writing in Ruby/Python/JavaScript/etc. I get that your bridging is manual, but if you built on top of the scripting bridge you'd have something much more general, and your "manual" bridging could just be pure Lua code.
  - sdegutis 12y ago
    Having used "Scripting Bridge" for a few years now, I'm keenly aware of its very real and common caveats, and I'm not comfortable using it in any serious project. If users would like to write something like Hydra using only LuaObjC[1] or something similar, they're free to. But manually bridging function calls gives Hydra a robustness and stability that such an automatic bridge can never truly have. [1] https://github.com/darrenclark/LuaObjC https://github.com/darrenclark/LuaObjC
    - cbsmith 12y ago
      I'm sure you wouldn't have bothered with the project if you didn't perceive it as being a better approach. I'm just ignorant to what the advantages are. Is the bridge really unstable? I hadn't noticed that with my admittedly limited exposure.