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Quicksilver Goes Open Source

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icekin:
It seems that this application launcher for the mac is now open source. Maybe someone will modify it for Windows? I am currently using Launchy and compared to that this will be a resource hog I'm sure, but given all the fuss about this program I am keen to try it out again.

I had it for a week while I used my friend's Mac. Too complicated in my opinion, but FARR users might like it.

Original Story: http://www.tuaw.com/2007/11/06/quicksilver-goes-open-source/

Source Page : http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-alchemy/downloads/list

nontroppo:
Quicksilver is much more than an application launcher. Having said that I find it hard to see how it could be difficult to use as a launcher (though thoroughly understand how it is difficult to master once you move forward from that). For App launching, surely you just open it, start typing the application name and hit enter?

I just type [scr][enter]
<bigotry alert>Launchy is an underperforming resource hog compared to FARR  :P (yes, I'm launchist!)</bigotry alert> :tounge-in-cheek:

Though it is now OSS, QS really works magic because it uses Cocoa to pull in resources across the operating system in a way not so easily possible on Windows without many more plugins. As such any QS clone for windows would need to write a lot of additional code to get similar functionality. But as we've discussed for FARR, I do believe using the noun<->verb<->argument model is the most elegant metaphor for doing work on objects (launching apps being a very reduced sub-set of that). In windows, the context menu is the closest analogy (subject<->predicate).

noun:mustafa verb:add note (to address book) argument: typed text
And where QS+cocoa does the extra magic is in the predicate verbs, because it has convinced most applications to interoperate using a standard scripting interface, thus a single developer can pull in lots of resources easily (most of the many QS plugins were written by Alcor). And it is in the verbs where most of the recoding would be needed in Windows/Linux. FARR now has a fantanstic plugin architecture, and this is where FARR will evolve from app launcher to Explorer replacement (as Quicksilver is to Finder). I doubt opening QSs source will reveal too much; just my :two:

What may be useful though, are the algorithms QS uses to learn launch associations. FARR adds scores to nouns, but QS adds scores to [text]<->[noun] pairings. So for example over time it will learn that scvr is mostly associated with [sc]ri[v]ene[r] without me having to manually add a [scvr] nickname. Exploring how it does the weightings could give some insight into how it seems to really know what I want to do.

mouser:
ps. i split off the domercury thread here: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=11244.0

Darwin:
I now have my geriatric Dual USB iBook G3 running Tiger and have the latest Quicksilver build installed and running. Wow. I'm also impressed by Spotlight for indexing my files. Very nice! Bit of a learning curve involved - I've barely scratched the surface of its abilities...

nontroppo:
Darwin: don't forget to download the excellent 97 page manual and cheat sheet for quicksilver (QS):

http://groups.google.com/group/blacktree-quicksilver/browse_thread/thread/ef99bcac45de5ca7

Note, QS cutting edge builds are now here:

http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-alchemy/downloads/list

But for a Tiger user I'd recommend sticking to the last official build. The cutting edge builds are better for Leopard users.

And if you want to read a preview of the next generation QS currently in hushed development by Alcor:

http://blacktree-alchemy.googlecode.com/svn-history/r21/trunk/01-README.txt

Not much to go on, but nevertheless exciting.

Yeah, running QS and spotlight works great even on old hardware, I find that amazingly impressive (considering what spotlight is doing). I installed Leopard on a 5 year old iBook and it works wonderfully. I'm about to try to install Windows Search 4 on an old XP laptop and see how it compares, but the last version was still much more incapable than spotlight.

Have you installed any QS plugins, and if so which ones?

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