Create a cross-platform version of Hourglass to support macOS and Linux
Opened this issue · 6 comments
Many users have requested macOS or Linux versions of Hourglass.
The current version is built on technologies that are largely specific to Windows, so it's not easy to port the app to other platforms and maintain a good experience.
It would be possible to rewrite the application using Electron, NW.js, Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF), or some similar cross-platform framework.
I like Hourglass very much (in fact I like Orzeszek Transfer even more) but if it is re-written in Electron I will not touch it any more. Please keep the Windows version Electron-free. Electron is not native, it is bloated, heavy and ugly, it is evil. I don't use and I will never use Electron programs (no Discord, no Rocket.Chat, no Riot, no Signal, no Slack). I miss some programs available only for Linux/macOS but one cannot have everything. I would like to use this occasion to thank you for your excellent work on both Hourglass and Orzeszek Transfer (the latter is always running in my system tray, for me it is a tiny yet great program without any real alternatives).
Regards
You don't have anything to worry about, since I wouldn't have time to do this any time soon anyway. :) And the old version would always be available too.
You're right about Electron in many ways. The timer, in particular, needs to start up quickly to be usable. But it's funny how many emails I've received about the decision to build Hourglass on top of the Microsoft .NET Framework with the same sort of arguments about how that framework is slow and bloated.
Electron made me love both Java and .NET Framework. :)
Off-topic- do you plan to continue the development of Orzeszek Transfer? Version 2.5.0.0, portable build is working just fine for me, I am just curious about its future.
Very few people use Orzeszek Transfer now that services like Dropbox and ShareDrop exist, so I didn't have plans to develop it further.
It is open sourced under the GPL 3.0 license (and I can probably license it under something more permissive too, if needed). The (embarrassing) source code is available here.
I have my own FTP server, I use also Tonido and HFS and ownCloud but for occasional file sharing Orzeszek Transfer is just fine for me- I do not need middlemen and your program is easy to use for not so tech-savvy people. Perhaps if you publish Orzeszek Transfer on GitHub more people would discover it and enjoy it. In the past I used Kangee but its development has stalled (it is most likely abandoned), it requires Java and it is heavier and slower than Orzeszek Transfer so I happily switched to Orzeszek Transfer.
Thanks for Hourglass. I wanted something very simple to just sound an alarm at a certain time. Hourglass is perfect for that. Most alternatives are overblown with feature bloat. I finally figured out how to sound an alarm at a particular time: "7:50p". Might be helpful to add an "Examples" on the context menu.
Regarding Linux support, I notice the app is written in C#. Anyone try building it with Mono or .Net Core? Just did some reading, and apparently people have had success with GTKSharp an Avalonia for cross-platform GUIs.