Stories

Comment by darcyliu

Comment

Comment by darcyliu

Hi all, thank you all for the comments, suggestions, and the questions.

Yes, Cheetah is just another GUI wrapper of the Virtualization.framework. It was mainly created for my personal needs. The original version was modified from Apple’s sample code with the Objective-C version in 2022. I want it to be able to run in the background, managed from the Menu Bar, and easily configurate the settings, not only for the number of compute units or memory size, but more importantly, the hard disk size. Cheetah is an updated version that I developed this summer, starting around Aug 10th with SwiftUI. As a developer, I always strive to learn new stuff every year. So basically speaking, when compared to other existing solutions based on Virtualization.framework, there isn't much difference, unless the feature could make my life easier (e.g., detecting the assigned IP address, keeping the instance running in the background after closing the GUI window).

I spent around two or three hours after work every day in the past two weeks to make it available for download from the Mac App Store. I know there are just a few people still making Mac Apps since people are more likely to pay for and install apps on their phones. I do not expect this app to make me rich, but I need to pay the Apple Developer account bills every year. So, the subscription price is $4.99 per year (not monthly) if you want to run more than two instances (please note that due to Apple’s license, you can only run two macOS virtual instances at the same time; subscribing to Cheetah does not enable you to bypass this restriction). That means $500 is enough for you to use it for 100 years.

As I said, it is not something to make big money, and I haven’t spent too much time on it so far. The product description is generated by ChatGPT since I am not a native English Speaker, and the Logo is generated by stable diffusion. I would appreciate it if anyone could help with the docs or app Logo. All the remaining icons are from SF Symbols. I would like to keep it as small as possible (as you know Apple’s storage is expensive) to expose macOS’s Virtualization feature to everyone in a simple way as a gift (for free within two instances).

Currently, Cheetah has about 6000 lines of code, with 55% written in Swift and 45% in Objective-C. I’ll continue to keep it small and simple, as light as possible. I won’t add new features for running other guest OS unless Virtualization supports it, as there are already many other tools like UTM that already support it. I might invest some time in the future to make it work for Apple silicon to run FreeBSD if I have the time.

Please feel free to comment, provide suggestions, or ask questions.

Replies darcyliu · 2023-08-31
Open on HN
Loading the discussion…

Domain filters

Stories from these domains are hidden from every list. Subdomains match too: blocking substack.com also hides danluu.substack.com. Type a domain, or paste a link to block its site, and press Enter.

New collection

Delete this collection?

About YAVCHN

YAVCHN is a reader for Hacker News and Lobsters, with articles and discussions in separate windows or Classic pages.

Created by Paul Parks and built with PUDL.

YAVCHN source code on GitHub

Privacy policy · Terms of use

Help

Keyboard

j / k
Move down and up the story list. The arrow keys scroll whatever has focus.
Enter
Read the marked story in the article reader.
[ / ]
Read the story above or below in the list, in the same article reader. Back returns to the story you came from.
p
Pin or unpin the marked story, which keeps it in Pinned.
n / N
Move to the next or previous top-level comment in the window in front.
c
Collapse or expand that comment.
f
Hide or show the story list.
Esc
Close a menu or this help.
Access key m
Go to the menu bar. Most browsers take it with Alt on Windows and Linux, and Safari with Control and Option.
?
Show this help.

Windows

Each story opens in a window holding its article above its discussion; drag the bar between them to share the room differently. A window can be moved by its title bar, resized from any edge, snapped to a half or a corner by dragging it there, maximised, or minimised to the bar at the foot of the page. Use Window > New reader window to open an empty reader, or Story > Open in new reader window to open another reader for the current article. Docked readers keep their articles when you select another story from the sidebar. Minimized readers can be restored and reused for their site. A window's Previous and Next buttons read up and down the list in the same window.

A link in a comment or an article to another Hacker News or Lobsters thread opens that thread in a window too. A link to a single HN comment opens the comment above its replies.

While a story's window is in front, the Story and Discussion menus in the menu bar hold its commands: pinning, Previous and Next story, sorting, collapsing every thread, jumping to the first new comment. Each window also remembers where you were in its article and discussion, so a reload, or Back to a story that Next took you past, finds your place again. Closing a window forgets it.

The whole arrangement lives in the address, so a bookmark or a shared link brings it back, and Back undoes the last change. Moving between Hacker News, Lobsters, their lists, Pinned and Find changes only the list, and leaves the windows open.

The list

The pin at the start of a row keeps the story in Pinned, and the cross at its end hides it. Pinned can be narrowed by words in the title, site or author, by source, and to the stories you haven't opened yet, and ordered by when you pinned them, by points or by comments; the filters are part of the address, so a filtered view can be bookmarked. Scroll past the end of the list to load more. Domain filters, in the View menu, hide every story from a site.

Collections are named lists of stories. Story > Add to collection files the story in front into one or more of them, and the Collections feed shows them all or one at a time; the menu that chooses collections also creates, renames, and deletes them. A note is your own text on a story. Choose Add note in a story's toolbar to write one; it saves as you type. Rows with a note carry the note mark, and the Notes feed lists every noted story and searches the text of your notes.

Browsing view

View > Windowed and View > Classic select the browsing view and save your default in this browser. Window view reuses a reader for each feed. Classic view opens stories and applets as pages. Open as a page is a one-off action that does not change your saved default. Use the Windowed selector to return an article to a window. Direct page links always open as pages.

Applets

The Applets menu in the menu bar holds three tools, each a window of its own. Replies to me takes your Hacker News user name and lists the replies to your last thirty comments and stories, checking again every three minutes while it is open, and marking what is new since you last marked them read. Look up a user opens a profile on Hacker News or Lobsters, with their submissions and recent comments, as a commenter's name in any discussion does; the bar at the top of a profile looks up someone else in the same window, and Back returns to the one before. Who is hiring? filters the posts of HN's monthly hiring threads by the words you type.

They read only what the sites publish to everyone, so none of them asks for a login, and your user name stays in this browser anonymously and is included in retained applet state when signed in.

Find

Find takes any link and lists every time it was submitted to Hacker News and Lobsters, so you can read each discussion of it.

About

YAVCHN never sees your Hacker News or Lobsters login. The discussion is fetched from each site's public API; to vote or reply, follow the link above the discussion, or the arrow beside a comment, to the source's own site. Without a YAVCHN account, your data stays in this browser. When signed in, pins, collections, notes, blocked domains, and retained reading state are stored with your account and synchronized across devices. Hidden stories and layout stay in this browser. The privacy policy has the details.

Open source: github.com/paulmooreparks/yavchn. Built with PUDL.