Komanda: IRC Client For Developers
github.com
github.com
Looking at the code, it appears to be a client, but in that case why does the site talk about it providing support for "Channels, Users, Permission, Private, Public and much more", why does it claim it makes my channel contents more secure (under "Secure Your Logs"), and why does it talk about setting up an IRCd (" With a ZNC bounce, a simple ircd server and 5 minutes you can avoid paying for communication and keep your company chat logs secure and on your own infrastructure.").
If it's a server, why is how to set it up not described?
Not sure if OP is actually part of the dev team, or just somebody who found the site, but a word to the devs: your website should clarify which of the above you are providing. If it's a client, the site shouldn't talk about the benefits I'd get running my own IRCd (security of communication, IRCd features like channel modes and permissions, or lower cost). If you are intending for folks to run their own IRCd, the site needs to have information on where that software lives and how to set it up, and why I'd want to do that instead of just making a channel on OFTC or Freenode or similar.
Due to the limited IPv4 addresses now available we can't be using many source address for users, while IPv6 causes further questions such as what do we do for idents as they don't fit as IPv4 addresses do, and what can be done for an IPv6 user connecting to an IPv4 network?
While WEBIRC solves all the issues it does mean IRC networks must trust kiwiirc with setting user hostnames - something some networks don't want to allow making it impossible for us to set user hostnames correctly. It's an issue without a real solution at the moment.
A large part is letting IRC admins know about the options kiwiirc provides to work around the issues, unfortunately many ban all kiwiirc users causing headaches for everyone instead of looking into the options.
As for "the best client for developers" -- I'll stick with irssi, thanks.
I'm currently building a desktop application for work, and this is the reason we've got with node-webkit -- we are using the same code-base for a client side web application with slightly different uses. Being able to do so is quite a boon, to be honest, and is cutting down dev time dramatically.
Just as one example, Komanda could've been done with Python and any of the variety of cross-platform GUI toolkits available for that language. It would run everywhere, faster, using native widgets, and in a language designed for the desktop.
The OP saying the app will run faster is not refuted even if NodeJS runs some things faster than Python.
I use it daily and at my job, and it's flat out slower than node for desktop applications.
(caveat; the pypy isn't as bad, but it has a terrible start up time and no widget libraries worth talking about)
If I am lazy and I write in Python 2.7 are you sure you can run my code on your Python 3.4 branch without using 2to3 tool?
Are you sure all the GUI library will work on every popular platform (Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, Mac OSX 10.6+, Ubuntu 10-14, Arch, never mind all XDE, KDE, GNOME, XFCE, etc dealing with native widget???) I really don't think the development experience would be as seamlessly as you think.
Python is probably the worst choice you could make for a desktop application.
If you're recommending it, you're either trolling, or you have no idea what you're talking about.
Please elaborate.
In the end, optimization forces operating at levels beyond our comprehension and ability to fully model will determine whether or not this project sees continued development. Personal lives, adcademic interest, social proliferation of memes, economic constraints...all serve as inputs. Don't force an outcome like this. You might damage the author's impetus to try again with more ambition in the future. Let nature run its course; you may occasionally find yourself surprised by the outcome.
In general, it is pointless to rationalize your choices to the rest of the world, which frankly doesn't put as much effort into listening as you might think.
Sorry if I come across as rude. I just think this could be better framed as constructive criticism.
Hacker News is a place where people discuss technology. Opinion is inherent in discussion. I don't apologize for anything I wrote.
But you already know that as you are posting from an anonymous username.
Because I find the lens of another's opinion or experience a useful tool in normalizing perception, I'm going to state my personal reaction to your posts. I sincerely do not mean to insult or offend you. If you feel differently, I understand. To me, a tone like yours paints a picture of a defensive, self-righteous bully. You state that you will not be censored, yet your language is coercive and might implicitly have that exact effect upon others. Would you really want to hurt someone else's ambition? There are enough problems in the world already without adding to the weight of their burden.
Again, just my personal take on your comments.
On a related note, try to better frame your arguments for the benefit of everyone else here. If you disagree with something, qualify your assertions so that they might be useful instead of adding more noise and entropy. For instance, you could have written a compelling and thoughtful argument about why you consider the DOM to be the wrong solution. Making an effort to write in this manner adds significant weight to your argument and brings value to those that are reading.
Take this as my personal challenge to you: consider the things you write and how others might react to them. We're all under the influence of neuropeptide signaling as we interact with others, and we can only make our best attempt at civility (which is unfortunately not a first-class a biological concept). I understand, and I assure you that I don't want to censor you or otherwise neuter your human experience. I have stated all of this expressly for your use. I have nothing to gain by taking the time to respond here.
Be chill. Relax. Abide. The universe is slipping all of us by far too quickly to waste time with being aggressive. Certain things just don't matter in light of that.
Believe it or not people actually use smartphones and tablets now, and even if you hate that and use desktop for all chatting and all repository notifications and the like, some people don't, and making stand alone GUI applications isn't helping those people.
And indeed often, just making the web app is easier than getting your app to look good natively across multiple operating systems, especially now with mobile being so prominent.
Having watched a coworker spend a solid week getting our company's ircd setup (and this was our VP of Engineering, mind you), I've gotta call BS here. Also, until I started using irccloud[1] a few months ago, I was using ZNC, and that's no walk in the park either.
So I'd question the point of building a native client, given ZNC's shortcomings. What's so special about this client that you couldn't just run it as a web service using Node, rather than only making it available as a fat node-webkit client?
I've gotta call BS on your story. Unless he was learning Unix from scratch, it shouldn't take more than a couple hours to setup an ircd.
While I could have relied on the defaults, I wouldn't trust my users' data with a default configuration. It would be irresponsible at best, and this is even more important to companies.
Was he writing custom patches for it, re-implementing SSL, custom services.
I think you wanted to tell us about how hard setting up irc could be but ended up telling us something about your VP of Engineering.
Setting up anything for IRC - be it a bouncer, a bot, an ircd - requires just one thing:
Being able to read, comprehend and some patience.
If all that fails, you just hop on IRC and ask the devs in the projects channel....
When you start adding features you don't need but think are cool or may one day get used, setting up these things becomes a whole other thing. A IRC server with simple nick auth and chanserv I'm sure would've been enough. What else did your VP implement? A egg drop not? Some other features? There has to be more to this story then you've said.
>With a ZNC bounce
which implies that they want you to connect to a bouncer. In which case, those two I linked to are clients as well, just it having a bouncer built in.
It seems to run on all my systems because it's webkit based; it's quite pretty. Had a bit of trouble with the setup which resulted in "USER Not enough parameters"; pretty rubbish first experience using it.
I don't see any 'developer features' that make it worth bothering with over any other irc client, but I appreciate the idea that it's javascript based and I could download and customize it if I wanted to.
Cute project; yet another 'uses webkit for desktop app'. For better or worse, that seems to be flavor of the month at the moment.
2. Part of the justification for the client seems to be "People are charging for this, just get it for free!!!" That's terrible logic. Professionals pay for their tools if the best tool for the job is commercial.
Perhaps some IRC users can pop up and illustrate us a bit about their client of choice.
Is IRC an acceptable medium for a company? Maybe it can be. Is it wise? Not with tools like irssi.