Is it technically possible to make a client version of this software? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 4 months ago by LazerFX@sh.itjust.works to c/photon@lemdro.id

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So I'm looking for a new client, specifically mobile, that's FOSS, easy to use, allows for browsing communities on other instances easily (not just searching for instances, but actually viewing the list of instances, etc).

I'm a dev, so happy to put some legwork into it myself. So my question is - technically, is the UI tied to being run on an instance "directly", or could it be detached, electron- or atom-ified and put into an app?

I can do the work, but before starting I'd like to know :⁠-⁠)

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[-] Xylight@lemm.ee 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Photon can be installed as a PWA if that's what you want. Photon v2 will take advantage of native features (👀)

[-] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Genuine question, what can there possibly be to improve to warrant a v2, its already so good.

[-] Xylight@lemm.ee 5 points 4 months ago

Svelte (the JS framework I use) is releasing a really big v5 update which adds a lot of cool things and basically changes everything. It warrants a rewrite since I can make photon really fast with svelte 5, and the old codebase was limiting me in a lot of ways.

The biggest feature of this rewrite will be support for mastodon AND Lemmy, and thanks to the way I'm writing these adaptors, can support Sublinks, PixelFed, and almost anything if I write an adaptor for it.

I'm considering making this an entirely separate project (you might see it on my GitHub soon!) and maintaining photon separately, because I want to design this new one as an SPA for speed.

[-] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 months ago

If the new version is meant to be just better, why dont you just replace the old photon?

[-] Xylight@lemm.ee 5 points 4 months ago

I want to start fresh, and this project will not use terminology from lemmy or mastodon specifically which will throw people off if I replaced photon.