Always interesting to see new HN apps, and this one seems OK.
Personally I prefer HACK [1], which is probably the most extensive HN client for iOS. The amount of options for controlling the look of the app means you can influence the reading experience quite a bit, which isn't true for this new app.
My biggest complaint with HACK is search. Instead of a real UI, it uses its own kludgy search syntax to control what to filter. For example, "foo #stories" filters stories only.
Do you read it on your phone? This website's (lack of a) mobile design makes it really hard to read. If I don't use my mobile app of choice (Harmonic), I have to zoom in really close and scroll all over the place. It's really annoying. The font is way too small, and it's hard-coded.
This looks fine to me? In long threads it gets a bit hard to follow, only thing I'm missing is a jump to next root comment. https://i.imgur.com/8e1Syyf.jpeg
> only thing I'm missing is a jump to next root comment
That's a two step process currently when you are just going through the comments you click "root" on any sub-root-comment and then "next" on the root comment. Next will always take you to the next sibling comment (called a sibling, because it's a tree data-structure basically and sibling comes from a family tree. In fact where I said sub-root-comment I could have said descendants or children.)
EDIT: I just realized that the first child of the root doesn't have the "root" button so you have to click "parent" on it and then "next".
I have been using an app on my phone (HACK) for a while. The content is way more readable with the app. And the interactions (voting and replying) are much more native. Navigating the comments (collapsing and expanding) are way easier
Strange question to ask on a forum where people seem intent on showing their new “I used AI to build something completely useless that will be forgotten in a matter of minutes” and the vast majority of people think it’s the next coming of Jesus.
If some users start seen `HNNetwork.NetworkError error 0`, this could be related to HN rate limit, i will add a friendly message for this error on the next version
Everything is persisted on device using GRDB
Credentials are stored on device keychain
Nothing leaves the app, its all Firebase, HNSite and iCloud to store custom groups
I dont have any infra supporting the app
Not really fixable, unfortunately. The API requires an network call for each comment:
> The v0 API is essentially a dump of our in-memory data structures. We know, what works great locally in memory isn't so hot over the network.
When I played around with making a client, I found the best approach was to only load the first level of comments, and asynchronously fetch children inside DisclosureGroups on appear.
Then I realized the only reason I was making an HN app was so it didn’t blind me at night, and then I realized Lobsters has all the same stories as this place but lets me filter out vibe coding articles, and I just gave up.
You can fetch the HTML (1 request), parse that, extract the comments, render the above the fold content, then use the API and blend the rest of the comments for the rest of the comments. You can also use the algolia api to grab comment data but the order doesn't match the website.
You might like HACK [1], then. It has a large set of options (maybe too many!) to change fonts, styles, colors, and spacing. It's probably the most extensive HN client for iOS.
Hey! Why a new app though? It's always interesting to understand the motives and the preferences of a person creating something new. I've skimmed through your website but you haven't highlighted what you missed in existing apps or what was your pain point
Personally I prefer HACK [1], which is probably the most extensive HN client for iOS. The amount of options for controlling the look of the app means you can influence the reading experience quite a bit, which isn't true for this new app.
My biggest complaint with HACK is search. Instead of a real UI, it uses its own kludgy search syntax to control what to filter. For example, "foo #stories" filters stories only.
[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hack-for-hacker-news-yc-reader...
https://hnpwa.com/
That's a two step process currently when you are just going through the comments you click "root" on any sub-root-comment and then "next" on the root comment. Next will always take you to the next sibling comment (called a sibling, because it's a tree data-structure basically and sibling comes from a family tree. In fact where I said sub-root-comment I could have said descendants or children.)
EDIT: I just realized that the first child of the root doesn't have the "root" button so you have to click "parent" on it and then "next".
Also on the iPad, the two column view is nice too
It doesn’t need one, but now the option is there.
For example: "AI" or "startups" or "discoveries"
> The v0 API is essentially a dump of our in-memory data structures. We know, what works great locally in memory isn't so hot over the network.
When I played around with making a client, I found the best approach was to only load the first level of comments, and asynchronously fetch children inside DisclosureGroups on appear.
Then I realized the only reason I was making an HN app was so it didn’t blind me at night, and then I realized Lobsters has all the same stories as this place but lets me filter out vibe coding articles, and I just gave up.
At least, that's what claude would suggest doing.
Would absolutely love it if the text could be made bigger (both for reading and commenting)!
By the way, this reply was posted using the HackerNows app itself :-)
[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hack-for-hacker-news-yc-reader...
Native dynamic fonts works, but i will add an in app option to change font size