6 ms·

Show HN: Mjolnir, an automation/productivity app for OS X

43 points by _vya7 12y ago

tehwalrus 12y ago
I can't read that page at all (I'm rendering it in XFCE in debian, because I am broke and between Macs.) to clarify, I can see that there is text, but it's so thin and faint on my crappy LCD that I'm getting a headache trying to read it. No, this doesn't happen on most sites.
- sdegutis 12y ago
  Hmm that's weird. I'm using a canned Github-Pages theme on that site. You can read the exact same text on the official readme: https://github.com/mjolnir-io/mjolnir https://github.com/mjolnir-io/mjolnir
  - Keats 12y ago
    The colour (#777) makes it hard to read (at least for me). Having it in black (and font-size bumped to 16px) makes it way more readable
    - drivingmenuts 12y ago
      I'd bump the font size up a few notches and maybe go with #333 or #444 if you're just itching for gray text.
sdegutis 12y ago
Author here. I'm very glad (and relieved!) to finally release this after several months of hard work and a ton of help from many very supportive and smart contributors. Mjolnir wouldn't be nearly as useful without their help! I'd be happy to answer questions here.
- encoded 12y ago
  Congrats on the release! I've enjoyed a few of your other projects, and am currently happily using Phoenix. I look forward to trying Mjolnir in the near future. I hope Mjolnir will be around for a while. I like your work, but redoing my setup each time is getting annoying. :)
  - sdegutis 12y ago
    Thanks! Mjolnir is not quite the same as Hydra/Phoenix/Zephyros. Those were "window managers" and that's really all they do. Mjolnir is for general automation, although window managing can be part of that. So if Phoenix is working for you, stick with it :)
- zaptheimpaler 12y ago
  I often write scripts using either Automator or Applescript and this looks much simpler to pick up. Does Mjolnir have the same functionality and access to app APIs that applescripts provide?
  - sdegutis 12y ago
    The core modules use Apple's Accessibility API to get access to other windows. AppleScript probably does the same thing internally. But using Mjolnir will have a different feel than using AppleScript.
- gorekee 12y ago
  Why do you remove the repo of Hydra?
airlocksoftware 12y ago
I was going to ask -- isn't this exactly like Hydra? But some Googling indicates it's the same project and was renamed. Explanation of the name change here: http://sdegutis.github.io/2014/08/11/the-history-and-current-state-of-appgrid-zephyros-phoenix-hydra-penknife-and-mjolnir/ http://sdegutis.github.io/2014/08/11/the-history-and-current...
- sdegutis 12y ago
  It does similar things, and started off from Hydra's code-base. But it's design and architecture is so different that it's now a completely different app. Many Hydra modules can be ported, but they're not completely 1:1 compatible.
- gregbarbosa 12y ago
  It's also written down in the FAQ section of the page. But I was thinking the same thing.
actionscripted 12y ago
It'd be awesome if there were a brew cask formula for install/setup.
- sdegutis 12y ago
  We experimented with that early on, but at the time `cask` didn't have any way to remove old versions when upgrading. This caused problems with the start-at-launch feature, which then launched several instances of the app. This may be fixed in newer versions of cask, though. If anyone gets around to it, send a PR :)
aeontech 12y ago
How does it compare to Amethyst [http://ianyh.com/amethyst/ http://ianyh.com/amethyst/] ?
- sdegutis 12y ago
  Amethyst is a window manager more like Slate. Mjolnir is an automation app that can do a lot of things, including window management.
- tuananh 12y ago
  Amethyst is a tiling window manager, mjolnir is an automation tool, which can be configured to be a window manager. Not sure if it can be configured to be a tiling one.
- nathankot 12y ago
  Just wrote a basic tiling window manager config based on amethyst: https://github.com/nathankot/dotfiles/blob/master/dotfiles/.mjolnir/init.lua https://github.com/nathankot/dotfiles/blob/master/dotfiles/.... Half-baked, but it's smoother than amethyst for me :)
vtail 12y ago
Congratulations on releasing Mjolnir! Here is some feedback: I have never heard of Mjolnir, or Hydra, before. I visited the page you linked and skimmed through. Here is what I learnt: - That it's a "Lightweight automation and productivity power-tool for OS X" - How to try it out - How to uninstall it, or install it to $HOME - How to install it's doc sets - How to work with modules - FAQ on some very technical questions - Some high-level phylosophical comparison with other apps ("Mjolnir is more modularized, Slate is more all-in-one") - Thanks, technical changes, license etc. I still have no idea what is it, what problems could it solve and what are some typical examples of automation, apart from a single paragraph"start writing some fun staff" in "Try it out" section. I'm certainly interested in automating tasks on my Mac, but after reading the landing page I have no idea what kinds of tasks it could be. Is it better that Automator? How does it compare? Is it better then writing shell scripts? etc. If I were you, I would spend 70% of the page to explain what someone can accomplish with Mjolnir and why they should care, and 30% (or less) on the technical stuff. May be I'm not an intended audience.
- sdegutis 12y ago
  Good points. I will work on improving the introduction of the landing page to explain this better. To be honest, it's kind of hard to explain what Mjolnir can do, because really it's just a Lua environment. I wrote some Lua modules people can install that bridge over internal OS X APIs to do things like access windows and stuff. But really, the power lies in your imagination of what you want to automate, and Mjolnir just gives you the power to automate them.
- sedev 12y ago
  Can't emphasize this stuff enough. What problems does it solve for the user? It's described in very general terms, which I'm going to assume is because it's a general-purpose tool that can solve many problems. Show some of them! Are they problems people already solve in a different way? Show why yours is better.
  - sdegutis 12y ago
    Thanks to both of you. I've updated the website now to include some things that help clarify some example use-cases. I hope it helps?
packetslave 12y ago
meow-meow?
- sdegutis 12y ago
  According to #mjolnir it's actually pronounced "myur-myur"

43 points by _vya7 12y ago

I can't read that page at all (I'm rendering it in XFCE in debian, because I am broke and between Macs.) to clarify, I can see that there is text, but it's so thin and faint on my crappy LCD that I'm getting a headache trying to read it. No, this doesn't happen on most sites.

sdegutis 12y ago
Hmm that's weird. I'm using a canned Github-Pages theme on that site. You can read the exact same text on the official readme: https://github.com/mjolnir-io/mjolnir https://github.com/mjolnir-io/mjolnir
- Keats 12y ago
  The colour (#777) makes it hard to read (at least for me). Having it in black (and font-size bumped to 16px) makes it way more readable
  - drivingmenuts 12y ago
    I'd bump the font size up a few notches and maybe go with #333 or #444 if you're just itching for gray text.

sdegutis 12y ago

Author here. I'm very glad (and relieved!) to finally release this after several months of hard work and a ton of help from many very supportive and smart contributors. Mjolnir wouldn't be nearly as useful without their help! I'd be happy to answer questions here.

encoded 12y ago
Congrats on the release! I've enjoyed a few of your other projects, and am currently happily using Phoenix. I look forward to trying Mjolnir in the near future. I hope Mjolnir will be around for a while. I like your work, but redoing my setup each time is getting annoying. :)
- sdegutis 12y ago
  Thanks! Mjolnir is not quite the same as Hydra/Phoenix/Zephyros. Those were "window managers" and that's really all they do. Mjolnir is for general automation, although window managing can be part of that. So if Phoenix is working for you, stick with it :)
zaptheimpaler 12y ago
I often write scripts using either Automator or Applescript and this looks much simpler to pick up. Does Mjolnir have the same functionality and access to app APIs that applescripts provide?
- sdegutis 12y ago
  The core modules use Apple's Accessibility API to get access to other windows. AppleScript probably does the same thing internally. But using Mjolnir will have a different feel than using AppleScript.
gorekee 12y ago
Why do you remove the repo of Hydra?

airlocksoftware 12y ago

I was going to ask -- isn't this exactly like Hydra? But some Googling indicates it's the same project and was renamed. Explanation of the name change here: http://sdegutis.github.io/2014/08/11/the-history-and-current-state-of-appgrid-zephyros-phoenix-hydra-penknife-and-mjolnir/ http://sdegutis.github.io/2014/08/11/the-history-and-current...

sdegutis 12y ago
It does similar things, and started off from Hydra's code-base. But it's design and architecture is so different that it's now a completely different app. Many Hydra modules can be ported, but they're not completely 1:1 compatible.
gregbarbosa 12y ago
It's also written down in the FAQ section of the page. But I was thinking the same thing.

actionscripted 12y ago

It'd be awesome if there were a brew cask formula for install/setup.

sdegutis 12y ago
We experimented with that early on, but at the time `cask` didn't have any way to remove old versions when upgrading. This caused problems with the start-at-launch feature, which then launched several instances of the app. This may be fixed in newer versions of cask, though. If anyone gets around to it, send a PR :)

aeontech 12y ago

How does it compare to Amethyst [http://ianyh.com/amethyst/ http://ianyh.com/amethyst/] ?

sdegutis 12y ago
Amethyst is a window manager more like Slate. Mjolnir is an automation app that can do a lot of things, including window management.
tuananh 12y ago
Amethyst is a tiling window manager, mjolnir is an automation tool, which can be configured to be a window manager. Not sure if it can be configured to be a tiling one.
nathankot 12y ago
Just wrote a basic tiling window manager config based on amethyst: https://github.com/nathankot/dotfiles/blob/master/dotfiles/.mjolnir/init.lua https://github.com/nathankot/dotfiles/blob/master/dotfiles/.... Half-baked, but it's smoother than amethyst for me :)

vtail 12y ago

Congratulations on releasing Mjolnir! Here is some feedback: I have never heard of Mjolnir, or Hydra, before. I visited the page you linked and skimmed through. Here is what I learnt: - That it's a "Lightweight automation and productivity power-tool for OS X" - How to try it out - How to uninstall it, or install it to $HOME - How to install it's doc sets - How to work with modules - FAQ on some very technical questions - Some high-level phylosophical comparison with other apps ("Mjolnir is more modularized, Slate is more all-in-one") - Thanks, technical changes, license etc. I still have no idea what is it, what problems could it solve and what are some typical examples of automation, apart from a single paragraph"start writing some fun staff" in "Try it out" section. I'm certainly interested in automating tasks on my Mac, but after reading the landing page I have no idea what kinds of tasks it could be. Is it better that Automator? How does it compare? Is it better then writing shell scripts? etc. If I were you, I would spend 70% of the page to explain what someone can accomplish with Mjolnir and why they should care, and 30% (or less) on the technical stuff. May be I'm not an intended audience.

sdegutis 12y ago
Good points. I will work on improving the introduction of the landing page to explain this better. To be honest, it's kind of hard to explain what Mjolnir can do, because really it's just a Lua environment. I wrote some Lua modules people can install that bridge over internal OS X APIs to do things like access windows and stuff. But really, the power lies in your imagination of what you want to automate, and Mjolnir just gives you the power to automate them.
sedev 12y ago
Can't emphasize this stuff enough. What problems does it solve for the user? It's described in very general terms, which I'm going to assume is because it's a general-purpose tool that can solve many problems. Show some of them! Are they problems people already solve in a different way? Show why yours is better.
- sdegutis 12y ago
  Thanks to both of you. I've updated the website now to include some things that help clarify some example use-cases. I hope it helps?

packetslave 12y ago

meow-meow?

sdegutis 12y ago
According to #mjolnir it's actually pronounced "myur-myur"