
Show HN: Macro – Keyboard Shortcuts for the web - andyzg
https://usemacro.github.io/
======
duck
Not to be that guy, but it seems like you should disclose you're using Google
Analytics[0]. It seems like every extension/cli tool that isn't upfront about
these sort of things always get called out for it and the negative attention
that brings.

0: [https://github.com/UseMacro/macro-chrome-
extension/blob/mast...](https://github.com/UseMacro/macro-chrome-
extension/blob/master/chrome-extension/js/analytics.js)

~~~
andyzg
Here's the data policy we just made: [https://github.com/UseMacro/macro-
chrome-extension/blob/mast...](https://github.com/UseMacro/macro-chrome-
extension/blob/master/data-policy.md)

~~~
LfLxfxxLxfxx
why does a keyboard shortcuts extension need to collect any data in the first
place?

~~~
salvar
If you're developing a keyboard shortcuts extension, would you rather have an
idea about how the product is being used or stay completely in the dark? Which
do you think would help you more in developing new features?

~~~
LfLxfxxLxfxx
If you care about having users at all, it would be wiser not to antagonize
them by send their information to third parties.

~~~
salvar
So you would rather know nothing about how users are using your product,
rather than risk offending the subset of users that are vehemently against
telemetry?

~~~
LfLxfxxLxfxx
There's a simple and polite way to learn that - just ask some of them.

I don't think very many users would go out of their way to be vehemently pro-
telemetry either. It's indistinguishable from spying. Most people just shrug
off their own inability to counter it and carry on with their lives, that's
why marketers and other scum are able to get away with it. But it's certainly
not in the users' best interest - I sincerely hope you have that interest at
heart.

~~~
salvar
I do, and telemetry definitely has a place in my mind to help achieve that.
I'm sure you will call me scum or something worse, but I sincerely hope that
you can see that maybe it's not as black and white as you see it.

------
kentt
Can anyone compare this to using vimium. I've been using that for a while and
an mostly pretty happy.

~~~
andyzg
Creator here. Vimium provides mostly generic shortcuts for all websites. We
find that there's a huge potential for better shortcuts on popular websites
like Messenger and Google that are tailored towards the app.

For example, Cmd+Enter sends an emoji, whereas there's no alternative on
Vimium iirc.

------
Willamin
"Try Macro now for free." makes me think that at some point you'll be charging
for the Macro. Are there any plans to monetize in the future?

~~~
andyzg
Thanks for mentioning that. I'm going to remove "for free", no plans to
monetize.

------
arvindravi
Nice work! I made something similar sometime back:
[http://shortkits.com](http://shortkits.com)

Although, people weren’t interested enough or I couldn’t get people to use it
enough.

Goodluck with Macro!

~~~
andyzg
That looks awesome! Really similar to what we want to build for our users.
Thanks for sharing!

------
Cub3
I've been using vimium for years now, the biggest problem I find is it only
works 90% of the time. Will try this out for a bit to see if it bridges that
gap

~~~
always_good
Having `d` (close tab) work on all pages except special ones puts you in a
place where you might as well just use `cmd-w` (browser default) to close tabs
because it actually works all the time.

That experience repeating with a few more critical vimium features and I ended
up uninstalling it. Firefox's vimperator, on the other hand, was just great.
Though I haven't found a replacement since Quantum.

~~~
bovine3dom
There's Vim-Vixen [1] and Tridactyl [2] for Firefox Quantum. Both suffer from
"you can't use the extension on all pages"-itis, and Tridactyl even manages to
break a handful of web pages, but for me it was good enough to stop using
Firefox ESR and Vimperator.

Disclaimer: a lot of Tridactyl's jank is due to me.

[1] [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vim-
vixen/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vim-vixen/)

[2] [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tridactyl-
vim...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tridactyl-vim/)

------
andyzg
Macro is a Chrome extension that makes users more productive on the web
through keyboard shortcuts.

Macro offers powerful website-specific shortcuts and instant keyboard shortcut
discovery across many websites. Think Vimium and Reddit Enhancement Suite in
one. Learning one website's shortcuts means you won’t have to learn it again
for a new website.

Let me know your thoughts or comments!

~~~
jonathanpoulter
Does this play well with the likes of Vimium? It seems to steal some of
Vimium's most common bindings.

~~~
andyzg
We've implemented this with inputs and other Chrome extensions in mind, so it
should work with Vimium. Our shortcuts mostly use modifier keys so that it
doesn't interfere with anything else.

------
AlphaWeaver
Have you considered Firefox support? Since there are only minor differences in
the underlying API nowadays, it isn't hard to build an extension for both
browsers from the same source!

Source: currently maintaining a production extension for both Chrome and
Firefox out of the same codebase

~~~
andyzg
Not yet, since we're first focused on an MVP. It's something we do have in
mind for our roadmap!

How difficult is it to maintain both browsers compared to only one?

~~~
AlphaWeaver
Not particularly challenging. There's a couple small things you have to add to
the manifest usually, but no big deal.

I might actually submit a PR for Firefox support in a day or two if I get
around to it.

~~~
andyzg
that would be awesome! Let us know if you have any questions, happy to help
you get onboarded.

------
Pwneed
Can't open "alt + /" on german QWERTZ keyboard.

~~~
philfrasty
Literally have this problem all the time with Mac + German Keyboard...50% of
shortcuts in menus (e.g. Atom editor) don't work...

------
ax0ar
I believe that focusing on individual pages will slow down the pace at which
you can advance. Every user may have tens of pages which he/she visits every
day. I reckon that supporting thousands of different pages would be a burden
and it would be nearly impossible to please every user.

Instead, I would recommend aiming to develop a rock solid swiss knife for
online keyboard shortcuts in the long term as an alternative to vimium with
some fine tuning for the most visited 100 websites for instance.

I would probably not feel the need to have an extra layer on top of vimium
otherwise.

~~~
andyzg
I agree, we're aiming to optimize for the most popular websites first. No
plans for supporting ALL websites.

------
perlpimp
I use other keyboard extensions why isn't there a full list of available
shortcuts provided on the page? Just so I can see without installing the
extension.

------
mariushop
I like this. Plans to make it work with
[https://eddtor.com/editor](https://eddtor.com/editor) ? :D

------
joshstrange
I would love if this would be like greasemonkey but for shortcuts where I
could create custom ones for my favorite sites and share the scripts.

------
mraxilus
I think it only works on google.com, I feel the other Google TLDs don't differ
enough to not enable it.

~~~
andyzg
Fixed!

