给 LT 读者朋友们迟到的中秋节大餐：Hotot 开发者 Shellex 独家专访。Here's the mooncake for the LinuxTOY fans: Exclusive Interview with Shellex, the founder of Hotot. Tommy: 很高兴在 9/11 这个日子可以采访 Hotot 的开发者 Shellex ，晚上好啦！ Good evening, Shellex. Very glad to have a chance to chat with you on this special day. shellex: 黑月好 ……^_^ 9.11这个日子很特殊啊。。Evening, Tommy. 9/11 is indeed a special day... 那么，先给读者朋友们介绍下自己吧 Well, would you please introduce yourself to the readers? 我叫 @shellex ，是一个... 嗯，喵星人... 现在呆在北京。 I'm @shellex, well, a creature from Kitty-Planet. I'm currently living in Beijing. 哇，还是保留神秘本色啊 。Still won't say too much about yourself. 一点都不神秘... 其实很多人都见过我的啦。 It's not, many people have meet me in person. 哈哈，肯定没有 Hotot 的用户多啊。聊聊当初是怎么想做 Hotot 的吧~ 相信很多朋友对此都很好奇。 I bet it's not as many as the Hotot users. How about talking about what makes you start the Hotot. I believe many of us are quite curious about that. 嗯，最初的时候，是 @doublechou 说，壳酱，做个 Twitter 客户端吧。于是就有了这个 Twitter 客户端。Yeah, it all began with the words from @doublechou "hey, @shellex, how about making a twitter client?". So it happened. 好吧，真实情况是当时 Linux 下 的 Twitter 客户端 Gwibber 太破了，逼着大家用 AIR 客户端。于是不得不自己做个顺手的。Well, the truth is at that time Gwibber, the native Twitter client under Linux wasn't that good. We had to use AIR-based one. So I think it would be better to write my own. AIR 的，是指 Spaz 么？ AIR-based one, you mean Spaz? 我当时用的是 twhirl，Spaz 倒是没用过。 I was using twhirl before, haven't used Spaz before. 哦……既然这么说，那么可不可以回想下当初进行 Hotot 设计的时候，特别注意的地方呢，比如上面提到的其他客户端的不足？ I see... Then can you recall anything special during the design of Hotot, perhaps the things missing from the clients mentioned above? 不过后来各种 Twitter 的客户端雨后春笋般出现了，大家的选择就多了。 Eventually, the Twitter clients spring up like mushrooms. Now we have much broader options. 说起来，Hotot确实经历过几次大的变化。As saying, Hotot has experienced several big changes indeed. 愿闻其详 Pray continue. 最初的时候，Hotot 是完全使用 GTK 来作为 GUI 的，直到发现使用 Webview 处理大量小对象更加得心应手，于是将 Tweet 列表使用 Webview 来显示。At first, GUI of Hotot was completely rely on GTK until we found Webview provides a better flexibility when dealing with large number of small widgets. So the list of tweets was rewritten using Webview. 紧接着发现 Native 的 GTK 外观看上去如此笨重，不如将所有 UI 都用 Web 技术来实现好了。既然这样，那么所有的 U I逻辑都使用 JavaScript 重写了一遍。 而 Python 只处理和操作系统紧密相关的部分，比如通知和文件系统访问。哦，还有网络。Then we felt that the looking of native GTK so cumbersome. We could apply the Web technology to all UI elements. Thus all the UI logic were rewritten with JavaScript. Only the OS specific events were handled by Python. Oh, network layer, too. 到最后，我和花喵 @shellexy 把对 Twitter 的 HTTP 请求也用 JavaScript 实现了，那么 Python 所需要做的工作就越来越少，于是就可以平滑移植到 Chrome 下了。关于移植到 Chrome，一是为了别的平台的同学也能用上；二是对 WebkitGTK 的性能和特性表示不满。Chrome 更能满足我们。At last, @shellexy and I implemented the HTTP request to Twitter with JavaScript, further reduce the dependency on Python. A step closer to port to Chrome. The Chrome port is considered to a) make it accessible to the users on other platforms; b) express our unsatisfactory against the performance and feature of WebKitGTK. Chrome suits our needs best. （其实现在我和花喵都用 Hotot for Chrome，而不是 Hotot。BTW @shellexy and I mainly use Hotot for Chrome, not the standalone Hotot. 哇，会不会独立的版本在某个时间会退役呢？ Woo, does it mean that the standalone version might be retired some time in the future? 唔，应该不会吧...除非 Linux 桌面死了... Hmm, perhaps not, unless the Linux Desktop is dead. 现在 Hotot 就是一个 Web App 罢了，放到任何一个 Webkit 实现的容器里都能跑起来。Currently Hotot is a Web App which can be run under any WebKit container. 恩……可不可以说某一天会看到 Qt 版本的 Hotot?(笑 Well, can I say that we might see a Qt based Hotot some day? :) 这个在开发初期就讨论过呢...甚至还曾经存在一个 Hotot-QT 的大分支，不过嘛，后来有了 Hotot for Chrome，这个QT外壳计划就搁置了咯。We had discussed it in the early phase of development. There used to be a big branch named Hotot-Qt. However, this development of this branch was ceased due to the birth of Hotot for Chrome. (编者注：在本采访发稿之际， @CSSlayer 写出了 Hotot-QT Editor: Just before publishing this interview, @CSSlayer wrote the Hotot-QT.) 不过欢迎大家往各种 Web 容器里移植。因为现在 Mac 和 Windows 下都没有独立 Hotot。Still, we are very welcome to anyone trying to port Hotot to any Web container because the standalone version on Mac or Windows doesn't exist at the moment. |
