> Postman is an API platform for building and using APIs. Postman simplifies each step of the API lifecycle and streamlines collaboration so you can create better APIs—faster.
I guess I’m no longer their target user. Back to curl/httpie.
> The developers stating they had no intention of changing this for "security reasons" before closing the Github issue sealed the deal.
The issue is still open with no response from the developers that mentions security reasons.
The original issues were from 2015 & 2017 - Scratchpad was only added to docs in Jun 2021 (before that was an undocumented feature for likely under 2 years I would guess).
Also, on the suitability of Scratchpad as a workaround for this bug, as quoted from person who created the linked issue:
> and no, scratchpad is not a solution to this.
The same sentiment is echoed through many of the more recent closed issues created in Github on this topic.
Either way: my comment above was mainly about dark patterns, which makes the existence of a workaround (not matter how suitable) somewhat moot. Even if this issue gets fixed "properly", the attitude of their devs over this long a period of time has been more than enough to turn me off using their software.
An exceptionally large majority of users that give us feedback are pretty happy with the collaborative online features that we provide through Workspaces.
Unfortunately, a small but vocal minority is insistent that all those things be not developed because they have built their own workarounds through patterns from decades ago (CLIs, editors, repositories). I just don't agree with the sentiment that progress towards making lives easier for others should be stopped for a narrow viewpoint to be met. I also understand that it will lead to alternatives but so far almost everything that I have seen in the market has been a clone of our feature set - open source or closed source. I am happy to see people compete with new ideas.
This is disingenuous. Firstly, no-one is asking for this "as the only option"; they're asking for it as an (exclusive) option. Secondly, there are no features being asked for here that can't be developed with local storage as an option - in fact, the default is for local storage to be the only option. In most apps, the approach is to add sync as an extra, not as the required default.
Scratchpad seems a perfect representation of the developers' motivations actually: it's both a demonstration that the feature is possible but deliberately implemented as a non-default side-feature without integration with the app's main workflows, to discourage use. So the devs can give it as a "solution" while continuing to pervasively track the bulk of their userbase.
I have to admit I'm quite surprised that VS Code (which is also an electron app) is relatively fast and resource-sensitive. Having open a few applications in my daily workflow, moderate resource consumption is getting an important selling point for me.
As long as it'll take for the investment documents to be signed.
1/ HTTPie for Terminal will always be open-source and obviously free. The difference is that now we’re able to pay a talented developer to work on the project full-time (the recent 3.0 release is a result of that).
2/ We’re building a new platform with the same principles that made HTTPie for Terminal successful in mind: uncompromising simplicity, focus on productivity, and delightful user experience. We’re in the same space as Postman, but the idea is to be anything like. We’re striving to become what Linear is to Jira, Vercel to AWS, Figma to Adobe, etc. That is, to offer a much simpler and more focused product. Premium services for companies will be a natural extension of the single-player mode, and all incentives will be aligned in a way that doesn’t cannibalize the core experience.
Always happy for any feedback!
I’m really hoping they don’t go the 1Password route and kill their native macOS product to move everyone to the cross-platform one.
[0] I'm lead developer for macOS app :)
Not sure if it's more or less unrealistic to have one native app per platform.
> Spotify did this for a while, but they eventually forced everyone onto the electron app
I don't think (but someone correct me if I'm wrong please) Spotify has ever been a Electron app. If I recall correctly they are indeed embedding Chromium but they are doing their own custom binding (possibly via CEF), not via Electron.
And I found the whole experience a bit confusing in terms of user flow
But it takes seconds to get up and running with requests-html. And it can do anything Postman can do and more. I have no idea how people in organizations use postman though.
It's really handy for generating test suites to hand to people who don't necessarily have the skills to write Python / node / whatever code. Have worked at places where certain changes needed a Postman collection alongside for people to manually verify that it works.
(Also handy for un-coder people to make test suites, obvs.)
(Also handy as a quick-and-dirty "view this data via the API" when you don't yet have a web UI etc.)
For us, the fact that you end up writing "code" in postman meant it had a learning curve anyway, so it was a really short sighted win.
For everyone smart enough to write postman code, especially postman code that leverages the scripts and storing variables, a simple test project set up by a dev is going to be very worthwhile. Postman doesn't have a linter or compiler, and it doesn't enable easy viewing of changes in source control because it's just one big json file.
curl + bloomRPC + graphiQL covers all my bases nowadays.
I just use Browser's Network tab for that nowadays. CORS can be a trouble at times, but that can be avoided with a few tweaks.
And get Python that I can start iterating on. They have lots of languages.
I used to use Postman but the clarity of the code is so much easier to see what’s happening vs postman imo.
For someone like me who just does this occasionally I found it rather useful.
- Didn't choke when having ~50 request 'tabs' open
- Didn't try to sell me shit
Granted, Postman had quite a lot more tools in its box for scripting, testing, sharing etc. but I didn't need those.
Insomnia has got a bit fatter since then, but it remains more responsive than Postman was.
Because it's OSS they didn't feel the need to bog down a perfectly functional product to drive a valuation up.
It's a carbon copy of what Postman started as.
You can download packages of extensions. I would recommend that you do it for the ones you love.
But the browser APIs are constantly changing, forcing you to keep running in order not to fall behind.