
An 'alt+space' launcher for Windows, built with Electron - gnocchi
https://github.com/appetizermonster/hain
======
Mithaldu
This is cute as a proof of concept, but it needs severe performance
improvements if it's intended to replace Launchy.

Launchy sits there with 30mb ram used and no cpu used when not in use.

This launcher sits there with 170mb ram used, and 1% of a core in _constant_
use.

~~~
TickleSteve
Why do more people not get annoyed with the inefficiency of JS... its just
burning CPU cycles and RAM!

Even 30MB is ridiculous for this type of App... back in the DOS days there
were similar TSRs using a few KB of RAM.

~~~
bengotow
Ahh the DOS days are long gone I'm afraid... A single 1024x1024 app icon on
Mac OS X weighs in at 4MB once it's inflated to raw bitmap data from ICNS /
PNG. Throw a couple of those onscreen at once in a list and you're looking at
30MB easy, and that's just in images!

Of course, you could leave out the images, but you could also just keep using
DOS if RAM is a concern :-)

~~~
unwind
Are _icons_ 1024x1024 now?!

And I still think 64x64 sounds kind of big for an icon, heh. I really need to
get with the times, and get a lawn I guess.

~~~
JonnieCache
It's for making them look smooth on high-dpi displays. Those pixels aren't
drawn 1:1, obviously.

------
marvy
Shouldn't the docs mention that alt-space already does something on windows?
Or is it assumed that whoever doesn't know about the default functionality
won't miss it? Or maybe everyone knows?

~~~
Stratoscope
Sometimes people just get a great idea for a cool keyboard shortcut and simply
don't know that it already has a standard meaning.

This may be such a case, and Parallels is definitely one. Parallels 11 takes
over the _spacebar_ (just plain spacebar) in Windows Explorer, using it to pop
up an OSX Quick Look panel like it does in Finder.

They apparently didn't think to check whether spacebar already does something
in Explorer. (It does, and keyboard users like me use it all the time - it's
an essential shortcut for keyboard navigation.)

And from what I've seen in forums and other interactions, they can't seem to
imagine that it was a bad idea to take over this key with no option to turn
off the behavior.

I love Parallels, but this is so clueless!

~~~
marvy
What on earth does spacebar do? I've been using windows for decades and I have
no clue! I just tried it right now and still have no clue!

~~~
oblio
My guess: it selects elements of the UI while you tab through them. Stuff like
table headers, for example.

~~~
Stratoscope
Just a note since we're long gone from the home page and you may not see this
even if you look at your "threads" page...

If you're curious, here's a description of how I use the spacebar in Explorer:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11368858](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11368858)

------
staticelf
As others have pointed out, there are stuff that should not be made with
Electron and this is one type of app that just shouldn't.

If it is platform specific anyways, why not do it in like C# or something that
would make it lighter and faster?

~~~
Rohansi
Because someone already did that.

[https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox](https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox)

------
clevernickname
Windows Key then type. No need to create a Chrome instance just to launch a
program.

~~~
dzaragozar
Exactly what I was going to reply.

~~~
wink
You both assume that people only use applications installed via a "standard"
installer, that sit in c:\program files (or whatever) and have proper menu
entries.

I have 4 GB of random stuff under c:\apps of which some things have been
copied over for nearly 10 years and countless windows installations. Also
PortableApps, which don't sit in the start menu.

------
konart
>npm

>JS

>Electron

for a thing that should be hyper-light and -fast? With all due respect - no,
thanks, but - no.

------
eps
Native Windows-S does nearly the same thing, does it not?

~~~
0x4a42
Yes...

------
djulius
Don't want to be the naysayer here, but this project is yet another 'I made
smth already exisiting but with node.js and the original is still largely
better'.

I think there are more interesting open source projects that should hit the HN
frontpage. So let's start with this one, that computes Wikipedia Pagerank on a
single node in less than 30 minutes : [https://www.nayuki.io/page/computing-
wikipedias-internal-pag...](https://www.nayuki.io/page/computing-wikipedias-
internal-pageranks)

~~~
nickonline
There's nothing stopping you from submitting, if it's truly interesting it
will appear on the front page.

Don't try to hijack someone else's post.

------
evandrix
How does this match up to Launchy?

~~~
reitanqild
Launchy doesn't require you to install npm first.

~~~
bengotow
I don't think you're intended to build it from source - you can just get a
binary:
[https://github.com/appetizermonster/Hain/releases](https://github.com/appetizermonster/Hain/releases)

~~~
eps
FOURTY FIVE MEGABYTES

/facepalm

~~~
ygra
Well, it bundles Webkit and a kitchen sink.

------
seqizz
> The name "Hain" is named by Hyunseop Lee, it means "a Servant" in Korean.

Also means "traitor" in Turkish, cool name.

~~~
fulafel
Scottish/gaelic "fein" is pronounced "hain", meaning self/yourself.

~~~
s_kilk
Huh, in Irish Gaelic (best gaelic) "fein" is pronounced like "feign" in
English, with a leading "f" sound.

~~~
SlashmanX
That's because it's spelled "féin" as Gaeilge, so it's more like 'fay-n'

~~~
s_kilk
Yeah, (born and raised in Ireland, complete with the mandatory Irish Language
lessons), I'm just wondering where the poster above got the supposed "h" sound
from.

~~~
SlashmanX
I'm pretty sure it's pronounced with that 'h' sound in Ulster but most schools
in Ireland are taught "Gaeilge na Mumhan" so we grew up it being an 'f' sound

------
myhandy
Off topic, but does anyone know what program they used as a screen recorder in
the README .gif?

~~~
huhtenberg
Don't know what this guy used exactly, but GifCam is really good -
[http://blog.bahraniapps.com/gifcam/](http://blog.bahraniapps.com/gifcam/) \-
it's not fancy, but it's well done on the engineering side, maintains good FPS
when capturing and compresses really well.

------
mateuszf
Would be awesome if it was also working on OSX. Pity I can't and don't wat to
program apple platform.

~~~
konart
Why? This was made only because OSX already has Alfred, LaunchBar and
Quicksilver

------
butz
What happened to tinyapps? I propose a challenge to create app launcher that
is 100KB or less.

------
mc_hammer
i really love these launcher apps.

this one sort of illustrates the problem with developing windows apps:

\- you either learn complicated c++ and windows api and have to write your own
rendering framework for custom components

\- or use C# and xaml and get terrible performance with systems with no gpu
acceleration

\- or use VB for terrible performance and CPU usage

\- or use javascript and node for huge memory usage and slower rendering than
c++ (VB has the same issues)

~~~
ygra
Uh, where did you get the VB for terrible performance and CPU usage? There's
nothing inherent to the language that makes it less efficient than C# or
anything else running on the CLR.

