

Hacker News App for Windows 8 - thedarkinside
http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/app/hacker-news-app/d26f7f82-0c9d-46fa-aecf-f02f817a0729

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pikachu_is_cool
This app is shit. I would abandon it immediately. I really mean this in the
most heartfelt and sincere way.

Literally everything about it is bad. The layout, the color scheme,
everything.

I would also like to mention that there are some fundamental flaws to this
"app", as well. First and foremost it's a Windows 8 application. I'm not
saying that Windows is bad. But the demographic here is largely skewed towards
the Unix variants. And those who _do_ use Windows are likely to be using
Windows 7, not 8.

Secondly, it's a full screen proprietary application. Why is fullscreen a
problem? People don't sit at a computer for the sole purpose of "I'm going to
read Hacker News". It's more of a passive thing you do while doing other work.
I don't think anyone would want HN taking up their entire screen. It's fine
for something like a smartphone or tablet which is by definition passive, but
a desktop computer.... not so much.

Lastly, you can do the same exact thing in a browser extension, which would be
open source, not fullscreen/in the way and cross-platform.

While writing this I realized that this _costs $2_. I had doubts that people
would download this as a free application, but there is no way in hell anyone
would ever consider paying money for this.

I'm sorry to be a dick, but I have a hunch that you have had nothing but
undeserved positive encouragement while building this application. Scrap this
shit. Make a game or something.

~~~
thedarkinside
Thanks for the candid feedback. I agree it is not that great. I have used it a
fair amount myself on my tablet where the full screen experience works better.
The browser experience for me is a little painful on the tablet and I find the
app gives me a better experience. The offline mode I find most useful,
especially when flying, since I can save a bunch of articles quickly and read
them at my leisure on the flight. Sure, I could probaby achieve the same
through another mechanism but on a windows 8 tablet I find things not built
for touch a little difficult to work with. Have to agree that the UI is not
the nicest by far - I struggled with the winjs stylesheets but maybe I will
find time to improve it. Honestly, I built it mainly for myself to try out
winjs. I find it useful and thought I might as well put it out there.

~~~
pikachu_is_cool
Oh... The whole touchscreen/tablet aspect of Windows 8 must have went
completely over my head... a lot of what I said kind of goes out the window
(heh) with that in mind.

Honestly, as a tablet application this is pretty awesome. The offline caching
bit is really cool too.

This is kind of embarrassing... sorry about that.

