Show HN: Krabby – A keyboard interface to the web, inspired by Kakoune

Re:Show HN: Krabby – A keyboard interface to the web, inspir... by brokenkebab on Sunday December 15, 2019 @06:17AM (#21795654)

All extensions in this field are very limited by all major browsers' security policies which prohibit, for example, user-defined keybindings on a blank tab. I found more satisfying mouseless experience only with specially crafted browsers like qutebrowser. But they come with their own troubles :( Would be really great for FF, and Chrome(ium) to make keybinding assignment more flexible instead.

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Re:Show HN: Krabby – A keyboard interface to the web, inspir... by unicornporn on Sunday December 15, 2019 @06:36AM (#21795736)

> All extensions in this field are very limited by all major browsers' security policies which prohibit, for example, user-defined keybindings on a blank tab

This is the correct answer. Attempts like these futile.

You can not properly control the UI while a page is loading which makes the UX godawful. Try closing a tab or switch while the current tab is loading. Sometimes it works, other times not. With legacy VimFX you coulf also access all buttons in the browser UI toolbar.

Was a VimFX user and the switch to WebExtensions was the greatest step back in browsing I've ever experienced. Tried to remedy this by running legacy extensions in Pale Moon. But that's not a way forward as these alt browsers are not secure. Actually, I'm toying with the idea of sandboxing alt browsers to be able to browse fast with my fingers on the keyboard again.

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Re:Show HN: Krabby – A keyboard interface to the web, inspir... by girst on Sunday December 15, 2019 @09:05AM (#21796269)

I am btw still maintaining VimFx[1], and you can run it in current versions of Firefox with a shim[2].

[1]: https://github.com/akhodakivskiy/vimfx/releases [2]: https://github.com/girst/legacyfox

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Re:Show HN: Krabby – A keyboard interface to the web, inspir... by unicornporn on Monday December 16, 2019 @07:13AM (#21802491)

Ha, you're here! I ran your updated versions in WaterFox for awhile. Was very happy and it worked perfectly. Thanks! I believe I read something back then about WaterFox eventually also phasing out XPCOM extensions.

Did not know about the shim. Will give it a try. You just gave me some new hope. Thanks again!

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Re:Show HN: Krabby – A keyboard interface to the web, inspir... by dri_ft on Sunday December 15, 2019 @11:03AM (#21796855)

I'm running Pentadactyl in Waterfox[0], which is a fork of the last good Firefox incorporating security updates from new Firefox. I can't vouch for how secure this really is in practice--perhaps the whole plan is a fool's errand--but it certainly works fine.

[0] https://www.waterfox.net/

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Re:Show HN: Krabby – A keyboard interface to the web, inspir... by slightwinder on Sunday December 15, 2019 @09:15AM (#21796297)

> Try closing a tab or switch while the current tab is loading.

Simple: use the default shortcuts for this. The normal shortcuts coming with the browser out of the box are always available. Yes, they are not as nice to use as vim-bindings, but they are working.

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Re:Show HN: Krabby – A keyboard interface to the web, inspir... by knolax on Sunday December 15, 2019 @09:35AM (#21796373)

"Doctor, my arm hurts when I do X"

"Then don't do X"

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Re:Show HN: Krabby – A keyboard interface to the web, inspir... by nextos on Sunday December 15, 2019 @09:24AM (#21796324)

Vimperator / Pentadactyl gave a fantastic experience on Firefox. But the recent transition to WebExtensions killed them, which is really sad.

It's the only major regression I have ever experienced in my computing workflow. There's no good replacement, as browsers that provide a good keyboard-driven experience come with their own troubles as you explained.

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Re:Show HN: Krabby – A keyboard interface to the web, inspir... by alexherbo2 on Monday December 16, 2019 @04:50AM (#21801955)

Tridactyl is currently the best (Vimperator / Pentadactyl)-like extension around. It seems to be nicely done and is in TypeScript (and Python for the application (native messaging) part). You might want to give a try, if not already.

https://github.com/tridactyl/tridactyl

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Re:Show HN: Krabby – A keyboard interface to the web, inspir... by leshow on Sunday December 15, 2019 @04:58PM (#21799263)

I use tridactyl and it isn't bad. I use the standard hotkeys to navigate forward/backward or to switch between tabs (unless I want to move to a far-away tab then i'll use 'b' so I can type in it's name to select). Because, as you said, the extension hotkeys don't work while the page is loading.

However, it works great for what I mainly use it for-- navigating up/down a page, and using f/gF/F to select links and open them or open in a new tab.

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Re:Show HN: Krabby – A keyboard interface to the web, inspir... by green7ea on Sunday December 15, 2019 @09:50AM (#21796441)

It seems that a lot of people are upset at browsers limitation's with custom keybindings. I thought I'd mention qutebrowser (https://qutebrowser.org/) which is a browser built using Qt (blink behind the scenes) around custom keybindings.

I'm using it right now and it's pretty great.

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Re:Show HN: Krabby – A keyboard interface to the web, inspir... by vageli on Sunday December 15, 2019 @10:16AM (#21796578)

> It seems that a lot of people are upset at browsers limitation's with custom keybindings. I thought I'd mention qutebrowser (https://qutebrowser.org/) which is a browser built using Qt (blink behind the scenes) around custom keybindings.

> I'm using it right now and it's pretty great.

Is it your daily driver or do you use it in addition to Chrome/Firefox?

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Re:Show HN: Krabby – A keyboard interface to the web, inspir... by drakenot on Sunday December 15, 2019 @11:19AM (#21796941)

Problem with the smaller browsers like Qutebrowser is there are no real extensions.

If I could run Qutebrowser with uBlock it would be perfect.

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Re:Show HN: Krabby – A keyboard interface to the web, inspir... by maddyboo on Sunday December 15, 2019 @12:47PM (#21797595)

Not the perfect solution, but I use NewTabTweaker [1] in FF set to redirect new tabs to DuckDuckGo. It works pretty well in combination with SurfingKeys, although I do occasionally need to use default FF keybinds, e.g. when a page fails to load.

1: https://github.com/rharel/webext-new-tab-tweaker

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Re:Show HN: Krabby – A keyboard interface to the web, inspir... by RMPR on Monday December 16, 2019 @12:35PM (#21804964)

True, especially with firefox hanging on wayland I find it more painful to use it keyboardless.

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Re:Show HN: Krabby – A keyboard interface to the web, inspir... by nathias on Sunday December 15, 2019 @09:40AM (#21796396)

vimium on firefox is very usable, you can replace blank tab with something else

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