HN user
https://swapped.ch
Screenshots are made on Windows 8.1 box, the windows chrome comes from there.
Plus the whole thing is meant to work on ancient Windows versions (like, Vista and WS2008 ancient), so that ultimately defines the minimal common UI denominator.
Let me chime in and say that plain Win32 API is a perfectly viable option if you are using C++ (or another "OO" language) and if you are willing to sink a couple of weeks into writing your own MFC-like wrapper.
Clearly this is not an option for those who are just starting up with Windows GUI work, but with little experience it is really a matter of 2-3 weeks of ground work and then you have full control over all nuances of the UI, yours to extend and mend as you wish.
If there's one thing that Microsoft is really good at, it's ensuring deep backward compatibility. So anything that's based on Win32 API is going to be stable. If it works now, it will work later.
I have some examples from 10+ years of development updates accumulated here - https://bvckup2.com/wip
I did something similar 15+ years ago to use as an avatar in forums, twitters and some such - https://swapped.ch/#!/personal-mark
Yes, I wrote one [1] and others did too, e.g. [2] and [3].
The gist of it, as mentioned in [4], is that you need to have a web server that implements checkStatus and saveConfig PUTs, and PUT and DELETE for saveBoard.
[1] https://github.com/apankrat/nullboard-agent
[2] https://github.com/luismedel/nbagent
Grocery and ToDo lists. That's Nullboard's primary purpose.
I showed it around to people that would listen, but otherwise, no, I didn't market it per se.
This is mine.
FWIW here's a Show HN from 2019 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20077177
Well, I didn't have a need to add or to change anything since then.
Here's the full timeline to get a general sense of the development pace - http://nullboard.io/changes
Thanks for the mention, this is mine. Did a ShowHN few years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20376437
A Kanban board - https://nullboard.io/preview
A GIF screen recorder - https://iobureau.com/ugiffer
A calorie/food tracker - https://i.imgur.com/bSFBFcE.png
It was easier to write exactly what I needed than to try and adapt to existing options.
This can be remedied by using tools that can do block-wise (delta) copying of large files, e.g. https://bvckup2.com/kb/delta-copying
The GP made generic dismissive remarks on a spherical cow in vacuum and under a blanket assumption that the other person is an idiot.
That's not how one starts a "constructive conversation".
But, yeah, that's just like my opinion too, man.
What’s the upside for the user of a nested sequence of modal dialogs anyway?
That's it. Allowing changing things in place is exactly one of the goals.
The sidebar is an index of several additional option pages, shown to the right of it. The first one is "Common" and it is shown by default.
This design didn't actually make it into the production release, it was replaced with https://bvckup2.com/wip/r82-rabbit-hole-x.gif.
Pi is a reference to a (really corny) "hacker" movie from the 90s called The Net. Same thing as the Pi at the bottom right of every page on Reddit.
All of them are using a custom framework.
Most transitions are trivial to implement - you have a state A of your dialog that looks like this and a start B with your target look/layout - so the framework figures out what needs to move where, what needs to be hidden/shown and then animates that in a quick loop.
The complicated part is the fading of controls. There's no fine-grained control over when Windows repaints controls exactly, so unpainted parts of the background showing through is a nasty issue. Requires basically per-Windows version voodoo, because what works for W8, doesn't work for W10 and vice versa.
Yes, hell, hell, I'll tell 'ya! Especially horrible the muscle memory aspect for the UI parts that are accessed once a year, if ever. And don't get me started on the situational awareness. Needing to pay attention to the contents of the screen? What an unrealistic burden.
Seriously though, feel free to offer your version of the same that would cleanly separate secondary options and sub-options so not to overwhelm the user with a laundry list of settings.
I'm failing to see the point of that dropdown (well, dropup) menu.
The point of all that "hell" is the layering and progressive refinement of the UI.
I make a boring Windows software that uses this sort of juicing in its UI.
Had some doubts if it would go well with, you know, your good old sysadmin types, but it did! A bit of embellishment that doesn't deviate too far from the native look and feel goes a long way. As per some guy here on HN - "delight your users" and all that.
Examples of what I'm referring to - https://bvckup2.com/wip/r82-preferences.gif, https://bvckup2.com/wip/r82-backup-settings.gif, https://bvckup2.com/wip/r82-rabbit-hole.gif, https://bvckup2.com/wip/r82-backup-verification-dialog-r2.gi...
Tangentially related -
Few years ago started using asserts as an ad-hoc documentation mechanism for invariants and then also started shipping them in production builds. When triggered, asserts grab the stack trace, write it into the application log and give an option of sending a bug report. And then they shut down the program.
Was scary at first, but the initial pain is absolutely worth it.
This flushed hundreds of absolutely crazy edge cases, improved code quality and stability tremendously. It also forced writing cleaner code to begin with and sped up debugging while in development. Now have about 3K asserts in 250 KLoC code base. Can't recommend this practice strong enough.
Backup software.
As a retail online vendor - PayPal is the fourth.
Did an AB test a while back and mere presence of the PayPal option boosts sales through all other options plus generates extra sales through PayPal itself. Not something that I was expecting at all, but the confidence level was over 99%.
Sort of tangentially related - few years ago and for no particular reason I pinged HN server for 6 hours and then made a "data viz poster" out of it -
Windows 7 is a fine system. It works. Why "upgrade"?
Im da sheng, beratna.
For what it's worth, we are making a system utility for Windows and our user base in the desktop segment is:
Windows 11 18%
Windows 10 71%
Windows 8.x / 7 11%
That's I did, but it's on hold and, realistically, not likely to be done. Still not a bad idea IMO.
Re: bvckup2 - the UI support for archiving is a part of the next release, looks like this - https://bvckup2.com/wip/r82-backup-settings-archiving.png - and it's available as a part of preview builds - https://bvckup2.com/support/preview (I'm the author)
I made a small JS library to resolve banding in CSS backgrounds with linear gradients. Uses the same idea.
Thanks. Should be fixed now... I think.
Not hiring anyone, sorry.
Thanks. It's a Let's Encrypt one. What's your OS/browser?
It's not a terribly complicated subject, but you do need a fair understanding of IP and UDP. TCP too, because it is possible to establish direct TCP connection through two NATs using the symmetrical open clause of the TCP handshake. Looks like magic when you see it work for the first time.
Stevens' book is a must read, yes, but it has nothing even on NAT (iirc), leave alone on working around it. Look at how NAT works, what types of it exist, etc. Then look at "hole punching". For bonus points skim through p2p-hackers mailing list archives from 2003 and thereabouts.
Very little has changed in this area since mid-00's, people just rediscover and re-implement the same thing over and over again. Few get it 100% right (IMO) due to sticking to prediction being done client-side. That's inferior to the server doing it, because it gets you more precise timing and better prediction rate.