The first game I'm building is the card game Phase 10, and I'm done with phases 1-7. After that, I'd like to build Carcassonne, and maybe Jeopardy.

I've created a new issue for this (it's similar to an idea I already had):

https://github.com/rob-johansen/textile/issues/75

(1) When creating the textile, you would add a step to "wait for new clipboard data."

(2) When you run the textile, and it gets to that step, a modal would appear, prompting you to copy the new thing to your clipboard.

(3) Once you've got the new thing on your clipboard, you would go back and click "Continue" on the modal from step 2.

(4) Textile would continue with the new thing on your clipboard.

Is that kind of what you were thinking?

Here's a quick example, and one that I often use with Textile to generate a preview URL based on my current branch:

(1) Start with the output of the command `git branch --show-current` in the `~/code` directory (yielding text like `JIRA-1234/some-feature`).

(2) Replace all `/` characters with `-` (now the text is `JIRA-1234-some-feature`).

(3) Prepend `[preview](https://staging-`, which is the start of a markdown link (now the text is `[preview](https://staging-JIRA-1234-some-feature`).

(4) Append `.example.com)`, which is the end of the markdown link (now the text is `[preview](https://staging-JIRA-1234-some-feature.example.com)`).

(5) Copy the result to my clipboard.

With those steps saved in Textile, I can now click a button to run them over and over again (or use a keyboard shortcut if I assigned one). So no matter which branch I'm on, I'll always get a proper preview link without having to construct it manually myself.

I'm excited to show off Textile, a desktop app I recently built.

Textile can combine bits of text using various inputs, such as commands on your computer, the contents of your clipboard, and hard-coded strings that you provide. It lets you carefully build up and modify a dynamic string, step by step, until it's exactly how you need it. The saved steps can then be executed on demand, with the click of a button or using a keyboard shortcut.

I built Textile because I was often constructing complicated, dynamic URLs from various sources that all existed on my computer. I got tired of manually switching between different apps, copying and pasting various chunks of text, and assembling them all together somewhere. I've also found Textile to be quite useful as a kind of repository for obscure bits of static text, such as ½ and other fraction characters, when I can't be bothered to remember their built-in keyboard combinations.

I also built Textile because I wanted to learn Electron, although I expect there will be some gnashing of teeth about this here. :) I think desktop development is quite interesting, in part because it doesn't require me, the developer, to pay for an API server and database in the cloud. The app itself is both the UI and the "server," and the local drive is effectively the "database." I knows this trades away syncing with the cloud but, on the other hand, there's something nice about knowing that your files are on your drive and not on somebody else's server.

I realize that something like Textile may already exist, and may have much more functionality but, again, I wanted to learn. I must say that multi-sequence keyboard shortcuts are hard, and there are cases that don't work right in Textile. I feel vulnerable admitting that my approach has much room for improvement!

For what it's worth, I did not use an LLM to write any code for Textile (although I did ask many questions of an LLM, as an alternative to Googling).

Textile is open source, free to use, and does not require sign up, email, phone, or other such barriers. Try it and let me know what you think!

(Note: I don't have access to hardware running Windows or Linux, so Textile is only available for macOS at the moment.)

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48361054

Points: 36

# Comments: 21

It's a great book, although it's forcing me to admit that I need glasses (the print is so small)!

I cringe at this attempt to soften the numbers by saying "fewer than" and "less than" here. Conversely, and ironically, it also puts inflated numbers in your head.

"How many people will be axed at Cisco?"

"3,998 ... but at least it's fewer than 4,000!"

Remote: Remote/Hybrid/On-Site

Willing to relocate: To Arizona, Texas, or Florida for the right opportunity

Technologies: TypeScript, React, Next.js, Node.js, PostgreSQL, AWS

Résumé/CV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CUhv4zVHxUlkLidmVu19ZacPhMf...

Email: rob [dot] johansen at gmail [dot] com

I just got laid off by Pie Insurance, along with 64 other people (including staff software engineers, engineering managers, product managers, and other roles). I worked across the stack at Pie, building design systems and reusable UI components on the front end, as well as APIs and event-based systems on the back end.

Our app is small beans, too. We don't even have that many users. To borrow a favorite term from DHH, Vercel are "merchants of complexity."

But they're only half the problem. Our management is the other half. They can't be bothered to grow a spine and move away from Vercel. So we'll just keep paying, and eventually some people will "be affected" by a "reduction in force."

I'm not sure if this LG display will have the same issue, but I won't be an early adopter.

No subscription, no mid-movie ads, and no worrying about this or that service losing the streaming rights to whatever.

Semicolon FUD is for the birds.

https://x.com/USWREMichael/status/2029754965778907493

Regardless, I agree with this article whose body eludes me: AGI is not imminent, it's hype in the extreme. It's the next fusion. It's perpetually on the horizon (pun intended), and we've wasted trillions on machines that will never reach it.