Slack for Linux – Help Hack on This | Hacker News Reader

Slack for Linux – Help Hack on This

github.com

36 pointswlaurance17 comments

Great idea.

I recently wrapped Cryptocat with node-webkit (still awaiting PR approval https://github.com/cryptocat/cryptocat/pull/694), hence allow me to give you some lib recommendations:

- Use node-webkit-builder (https://github.com/mllrsohn/grunt-node-webkit-builder) for your build-process (your Gruntfile.js looks very bloated currently).

- Use node-notifier (https://github.com/mikaelbr/node-notifier) for desktop notifications (looks like the best solution so far).

Anyways, best luck to you.

Awesome, thanks for the recommendations. I'm switching over to grunt-node-webkit-builder.

I'm going to try to make it as easy as `npm install slack-for-linux -g' to get the client in your path.

So this looks a lot cleaner than the other yeoman grunt generator I used initially.

As for node-notifier, this seems easy. I guess the only thing is hooking into the events emitted by the Slack Javascript? I need to dig in further for this.

Thanks,

Will

For people who don't care for 'apps' that are just websites inside browsers, Slack supports XMPP and IRC gateways. I've only used the IRC gateway, and there are some janky bits, but it got the job done. https://slack.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201727913-Connec...

I've found the XMPP gateway doesn't display edited messages, so I stopped using it. Now I just keep a Chromium window open.

The IRC gateway also does not. It typically wasn't an issue for me when I was using it as most of my coworkers at the time did not frequently edit messages.

I just built this in Ubuntu; works well enough - however it is identical to just running an "app" from Chromium; so I think I'll keep doing that.

How does this differ from the official Slack "app" for Linux [0], which is Google Chrome with an application shortcut?

It looks like all this does is open this page [1] in node-webkit. That means the author has substituted Chromium for Chrome. Anything else?

[0] https://slack.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201746897-Slack-...

[1] https://github.com/wlaurance/slack-4-linux/blob/master/app/v...

https://github.com/wlaurance/slack-4-linux/commit/66be9fc406...

Nice, I'll check it out!

Given the premium price of Slack compared to alternatives I'd have expected that they were the one developing a Linux client

Check out Hall for business messaging. Has a Linux, Mac, Windows, iPhone/iPad, Android, & web apps. All free, with unlimited members, groups, integrations, and history. https://hall.com/download-hall/hall-for-linux

Hall has a linux client, in addition to their android/ios/mac/windows clients.

What are the odds that this will ever work properly? That it won't break every few months?

Internally it is using an iframe.

So that should continue to work decently. It's the building and packaging of the thing that will break.

I use the IRC gateway with weechat. Makes me happy I don't need a bunch of clients.

Does BoB approve?

What in the world is Slack?

https://slack.com/

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