The Future of Flashlight #537
Comments
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More exactly, it seems that you need to disable the rootless security only to install SIMBL. So it could be an acceptable think for power users. So, your proposition to built a new software from the ground with the best of spotlight and flashlight is great ! |
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As an "external" Software, there already is a similar solution: Quicksilver. It's source code is available at https://github.com/quicksilver/Quicksilver and it is extendable via plugins. I used Flashlight though, because it was very convenient not to have to use a separate program. Maybe one can think of extending Quicksilver or start a similar project from scratch. |
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I've tried using both Quicksilver and Alfred, they're just not nearly as good as Flashlight injected into Spotlight was. I understand the need to appeal to average users, but disabling SIP in the recovery partition is not hard. The new app should definitely use the same two column layout with immediate information as spotlight. Suggested websites would be nice, iTunes music library search would be great too. These are the things that stop me from wanting to use Alfred. Thank you! |
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You guys may want to look into Lacona. It is an extensible command runner with a powerful but simple NLP engine. Commands will be open source JavaScript, and it has its own UI. Should be able to do everything Flashlight can do, but support more natural syntax. It's on Kickstarter now. And I wrote it, so sorry for the shameless self-plug. Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2102999333/lacona-natural-language-commands-for-your-mac |
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I love Nate's work, but I have to agree with the community. I loved Flashlight since it was integrated with Spotlight. While I would love to see what Nate has planned, I'm afraid I may not use flashlight if it is made into a standalone app. There are many others which do the same work. The beauty of Flashlight was in its simplicity. |
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Have you asked Apple about opening Spotlight API to external plugins? Why they prohibit such idea? |
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@nate-parrott thanks for your kind words and sharing your opinion on the future of Flashlight. If it's the case, that only the installation of SIMBL requires to disable rootless, I'd love to have a solution where the plugins could work with both, A solution that integrates with spotlight (for power user) as well as a separate tool with an own UI. |
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As a launcher addict since the days when LauchBar was the only game in town, and having extensively used Quicksilver, Alfred over many years, I have to agree with the opinions already cited that having another launcher app is a big downside. Would it be at all possible to re-implement the current hop-on-spotlight behaviour by using the Accessibility API to get updates on what the user's entering, then neatly clobber Spotlight output with Flashlight output? It would be a cool hack if it can work. |
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Generally agreeing w/ other posters. I was a long-time quicksilver, then alfred (and now again) user. I really liked having a single search/launcher -- Flashlight's integration into Spotlight is a pretty killer feature. Perhaps @xremix 's idea of universal plugin support between a standalone launcher and a version we have to hack into spotlight is the way to go? |
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I'd love to see such a solution. But it would require more effort of the community so we would need more people that commit with us. |
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I agree with was said: Flashlight is awesome because it's simple and is almost invisible. It just works, like a OS X feature. There's nothing like CMD+Space and voilà! Since I setup Flashlight, I changed (for very best) the way I do almost my daily tasks in front of my Mac. And don't have it anymore, is very sad :( I think @xremix is right. I guess there is a lot of power user who love Flashlight, and run some Terminal line is not a problem for most of them. These can keep using Flashlight via Spotlight. The others, would have a standalone app. I'm here for what you need. Count with me. |
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Honestly, this is really a tool that should be built-in. Flashlight as it used to work is so seamless. I am a paid user of Alfred and I have to say, once I tried Flashlight, I completely uninstalled Alfred (no offense to the Alfred developers -- it's great at what it does, but the approach is similar to other products which is not as seamless as Flashlight). I think that if Flashlight goes in the direction of the other launchers, there is little (besides a good ecosystem of plugins and that it is open-source) to differentiate. Sure, free is nice, but Let's be honest; for OSX users, free is generally not a deal-breaker. Perhaps if it goes to a full standalone app, I'd still stick with Flashlight, but then again, I've paid for Alfred so perhaps I just stick with that. I'm not 100% sure, but keep in mind, when Flashlight was working, I was 100% sure that I'd be sticking with Flashlight and I was regretting that I had paid for Alfred. I hope this opinion helps your decision somehow @nate-parrott. |
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@nate-parrott I don't know if you have already tried or whether it is even possible but have you approached Apple about an 'official' work around? I agree with the above stated responses, that the integration into Spotlight is what made Flashlight better of all the options. But yeah just a suggestion. |
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I'm neither a Flashlight user (I was hoping to be, but alas, The Captain said no), nor have I developed against the Core Spotlight Framework—so bear with my naïvety. However, Apple's Core Spotlight Framework seems to provide the necessary hooks. The implementation may be convoluted in that a standalone Flashlight app would create files to be indexed by Spotlight, and NSUserActivity would allow one to navigate from Spotlight into specific Flashlight states/navigation points. Is this workflow too convoluted? By all means, punch some holes in this suggestion. Cheers. [edit] |
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@acaloiaro that's iOS though, right? AFAIK there's no OS X equivalent. |
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@xdissent You're right, I hadn't noticed the URL. However, I think the general approach still applies: The next step would be to determine whether or not one can extract additional information from the query when displaying Quick Look result in Spotlight. So, for example, when one types "weather in New York", a Quick Look showing the Weather file populated with weather data for New York is displayed in Spotlight. |
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So why did Lacona fail its kickstarter funding and why did nate not support it? |
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Lacona dev here. I did reach out to Nate (via email) to consider Lacona as a possible successor, and never got a response. But, of course, that's perfectly fine.Lacona is a different project with different goals. Lacona failed it's kickstarter but development is going to continue, and I believe there is a place for both Lacona and Flashlight in the future. |
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@brandonhorst if you set up a donation button... that might be a good idea :) |
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I would definitely like to see where Lacona and Flashlight goes. The two would be great together. Lacona already has a fantastic UI concept; it's definitely something to build off of. @brandonhorst Also, this is the first time I've heard of Lacona. If you did happen to want people (myself included) to throw more money at you--give us a PayPal address or something. I'd happily give you some money for the continuation of Lacona; I'm sure others would as well. |
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@Nxt3 @tobsn thanks, guys! I appreciate the kind words. I did add donation buttons to the website, but I'm not going to push for donations much until I actually release something - I want to make sure I keep everything on the up and up. This isn't the place to talk about this, though. If you have questions, you can bring them here: brandonhorst/www.lacona.io#3 |
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Why not join Apple spotlight team. Your work is so great and you can make spotlight much stronger based on flashlight. |
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He has joined Apple Sent from my iPhone
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Cool, maybe we can expect more functionalities as Flashlight in Spotlight in the future. |
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He was at Apple for a summer internship, that's why he couldn't work on hacky software over the summer. Should be over by now. |
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Here's my fork for 10.10+ (Yosemite and El Capitan). |
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@w0lfschild Does it work on 10.11? |
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@JMY1000 That's what
would imply |
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@controversial Usually, but given all the trouble people have been having getting it to work on 10.11, I just wanted to make sure. |
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Ok. I haven't actually tried it myself, but I assume it does On Mon, Jun 13, 2016 at 11:57 AM JMY1000 [email protected] wrote:
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Totally works on el capitan, super cool |
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But does it work on macOS 12 Sierra? 🙄 |
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What were your steps to get it running on El Cap? Did you disable SIP, install SIMBL first, etc.? @matthias-vogt |
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Thank you so fucking much, w0lfschild! |
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@tsimmons There are install instructions in the repos README. Here are some even more clear instructions.
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@w0lfschild Perfect! This is awesome. |
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Awesome! You saved lives :D
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This is better than WWDC! |
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@w0lfschild You are amazing. Thanks so much. |
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Awesome! I guess this is the best news of the day and I am so glad to get this working again. @w0lfschild, thanks a lot for your effort and getting this back to live for me and all the others. |
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@w0lfschild Can't even express enough thanks! Great breakthrough! Confirmed working on 10.11.5 PS, quick question for you guys- I vaguely remember flashlight being able to navigate google searches and than clicking links within spotlight and never having to open a web browser-but right now when you navigate through flashlight and click on a link from a search- it opens up on a new window in your browser instead of through the spotlight interface. Has something been lost in transition to get a working flashlight for 10.11.x? anyways it's not a major issue just wondering if maybe my plug in needs to be reinstalled or it doesn't work for you guys as well. Thanks again though @w0lfschild!! Back to power using! |
As of the first build yes:
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Awesome news ! Thank you very much, works perfectly ! |
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I need to Disable System Integrity Protection (like #537 (comment)) on Sierra? |
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@foomep yup all systems above Yosemite come with System Integrity Protection which needs to be disabled once to install a helper. |
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@w0lfschild For some reason after following instruction my icons in Chrome has changed:
Thank you @w0lfschild, Flashlight now works fine. |
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Not sure what that has to do with this? But that's just the new material look in Chrome, made default in v51/52+ depending on your OS. You can disable it in chrome:flags... |
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@wickles thank you, my flag was set to "Default" so I had to change it to "non-material", I was just confused, it happened just after disabling the System Integrity Protection. |
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@rafalenden Beacause the Chrome update was installed, and changes were applied after your reboot restarted Chrome too |
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I tried on Sierra but its not working for me: Disable SIP I enable SIP again but at some reason its not working for me. Back in Yosemite days when I was using Flashlight i notice regular crashes and after disable / enable its back again but this workaround its not working. |
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I uninstall everything and start from scratch and now Flashlight is working don't know what was the root cause. |
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I hope Flashlight will ever come out properly again. I can't wait!! What was yours? |
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@mesqueeb I doubt we'll see an official release by nateparrot. Check out w0lfschild's fork. |
and others
Hacking Spotlight is impossible in 10.11. [1]
That's disappointing, but it's also a great opportunity to think about the future of Flashlight.
Even when Flashlight didn't do that much, it was still useful because it was a complement to all of Spotlight's existing features. But now Flashlight's grown up — it has hundreds of features built by a great community. I think it's useful enough to survive as a standalone app — a fresher, more open-source take on all the standalone launcher apps we love. [2]
I still won't be able to work on Flashlight for a couple more weeks, so here's a challenge for all of you:
Figure out what Flashlight can be once it's independent of Spotlight. And help me build it. [3]
[1] Apple's new "rootless" security system blocks code injection into system processes. Technically you can disable rootless – but I'll have to agree with the TotalFinder devs that it doesn't make sense to ask ordinary users to do this. And these security restrictions will only get tighter in the future – it doesn't make sense to build a product around circumventing them.
[2] Obviously we'll need to add things like app launching and file search, which Spotlight did for us. And we'll need to build a new UI. But that'll be fun.
[3] If you've got ideas, create issues for them and tag them with the future label. If you've got prototypes of standalone Flashlight UIs, add it in a new branch and submit a pull request with it.
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