New Release: Patchfox 2020.2.1

The new release has been named "Quantum Spaghetti" because the source code is not in a state I want but it is still good code and the features are working well. I came to realize that the new mithril codebase I'm building doesn't share any code whatsoever with this version, they shouldn't even have the same name. Because of that I'll keep developing this version further so that the current users can benefit from an ongoing client while I think and experiment with some even more radical ideas with the mithril version. If you're a Mozilla connoisseur, this is akin to Gecko and Servo. The mithril codebase is reasearch that will inform and inspire the current svelte code base and might eventually replace it if it is good enough, but I'll move that research branch slowly as I'm no longer simply trying to replace the current svelte branch.

New features:

I've added some new features to this release but not many. The most prominent ones are:

New message styles

There is a new style for messages that tries to remove attention and focus from messages that are not posts, gatherings or blogs. These messages appear as a small line without a card background. They are still visible but they should remove noise from your timeline as can be seen in:

New mini app: Zine

I'm releasing the Zine mini app which is a novelty way of consuming content from channels you've subscribed to. The best use case are for messages with are short and contain pictures such as the #showmeyourcoffee channel:

Conclusion

I hope you hermies try this out and send me feedback. I'm keen to keep working on this branch now as I've found a solution for the problems I've described in an earlier message, I just had to think of components composition backwards! Who could've guessed! 😸😹😸

I'll try to make more frequent releases, maybe at least once a month from now onwards.

You can find more information about patchfox on its on web site at Patchfox.org. The source code is available both in Github and Sourcehut. You can install it on Firefox via the Firefox Add-ons Portal. This release has been made from the master branch and is being collected at the v2020.2.1 tag.

congratulations on the new release, and thanks for your work on it

is my previously-installed version expected to auto-update eventually, or should I look into downloading and installing the new one manually? TIA,

Hey @lxoliva,

I was thinking of you these days but I was offline and couldn't tag you <3

So, if you installed the add-on from the Firefox Add-ons Portal then it should automatically update. It might have updated already... If it doesn't then can you ping me?

ping ;-)

it felt very snappy today, unlike my recollection from earlier uses, but no, it still says version 2019.11.2

running abrowser 72, would that change the auto-update expectations?

all right, I went to the firefox addons page and added it (I don't really recall how it was that I installed it before, I couldn't promise it was from there), but now I'm running the newer version and posting from it. thanks!

@lxoliva,

Patchfox is now just an opinionated collection of packages. Everything you see there is a little package and you can add or remove features by turning them on or off. I'll give you any help you want if you think about using it as a base for a client of your own. I want Patchfox to be used as a toolkit by the various people here to build their own bespoke clients. It is fairly easy to change almost all aspects of it even though the code is quite messy. I'm going to document everything in the next releases.

Thanks a lot for trying it out.

So, those wanting to try the Zine mini app, you can just use the menu Patchfox &rarr; Launcher to access the launcher and then select Zine or press CTRL+M (or CMD if it is a mac) and then select Zine.

lxoliva, being more snappy is just luck rsrsrs. I have better SSB code to use from the mithril branch but to refactor that in will take a while.

The performance of Patchfox is also tied to what ssb-server you're running. It might be more snappy when paired with Oasis than when paired with Patchwork as Oasis is less active than Patchwork and thus more responsive to my ssb-ws requests.

yeah, it was just luck indeed, I was still running the older version then. I may have updated abrowser since earlier users, that might be it. I've also updated Patchwork, that's for sure. it's good that it's snappy.

I don't know anything about developing browser extensions; you got pointers to any good resources to get me started? TIA,

@SoapDog

Congrats on the release!

@Christian Bundy,

Thanks a ton my friend!

thanks for the kind words @cinnamon 💖💖💖💖 and yes, that hashtag rocks!!!

Thank you @SoapDog I am experimenting scuttlebutt for 2 weeks now, and I love the place, I love the pace, I live in peace now.

Graceful 💓 for all
Digital wizard exists 🧙‍♀️ 🍎

Now I have Libre Money and Libre Social, I can cut soon all my other channels from that digital noise up there. And build from #duniter & #ssb