Keypirinha
Call for help with the project ❤
TL;DR I am the author of Keypirinha and this is a call for help with the project, towards either:
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A company who wish for some reason to hire a developer to work exclusively on an open-sourced version of Keypirinha
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An opinionated C++ coder on Windows platforms, who knows the Win32 APIs by heart, who already dug many times into the internals of the system, who has a constant willing to write clean code, and who would be willing to spend a lot of their spare time coding an open-sourced version of Keypirinha with me (@polyvertex)
Please PM @polyvertex from the chat room.
Rationale:
At its beginning, Keypirinha was a small piece of software made for personal use only. Many things changed since its first public release thanks to the feedback of some users (thank you!) but truth is its source code was never meant to evolve that much in order to provide support for the multiple requested features.
This is fine and all, but the project reached a point where it does need to be modernized: Win11 support, GUI improvements, extending plugins API, plugins language version (Python), major features to be improved or implemented, and so on...
This takes a lot of time.
In addition to that, I have been maintaining a to-do list for Keypirinha that grew far too big over time for a single developer and their spare time, and it is clear that time-wise, I cannot keep up on my own unless I get paid for it because.. Well.. Life..
For some of you, the immediate and mechanical answer to this would be "release the source code". But as I have attempted to explain multiple times, this is not ideal in this very case and it would not help the project at all on some aspects. Also, on a more personal note, I would prefer to spend my time writing code than doing code reviewing. And if there is someone out there, motivated enough to take over with their own fork of it, then why not doing it together and collaborate?
I for one am still definitely motivated in keeping Keypirinha alive as I do keep using it heavily on an everyday basis. And still not keen on using any of the more recent alternatives to it.
So I do wish to build up a modernized version of Keypirinha, from its very foundations, with the many new ideas that kept popping up during last past years.
The ultimate goal being providing a modernized and open-sourced version of Keypirinha.
As a side note, I wish to thank this very small community of Keypirinha users for supporting the project, for providing such valuable feedback, and for helping improving the project by crafting awesome plugins and helping others. A special thank you to @ueffel, for the many many times he helped with the project and for providing the valuable Keypirinha-PackageControl.
First of all: Thanks for the kind words.
I'm glad to see there is activity in the project again and really hope there is someone, who can help. I sadly cannot help :(. My C++ is very weak and my knowledge of the Win32 API is not extensive.
Adding my voice here to thank you for your work, @polyvertex. Keypirinha remains my favourite launcher, and I've tried a few, on several platforms.
I'm in a similar situation as @ueffel, with limited C++ and Win32 skills. Enough to help around on smaller tasks, but not on a full rewrite. That's why I would be one of those saying "release the source code", and then poke at small bits I can understand — refactoring mysterious codebases is part of my professional career 😛 I see your point of view though, and I hope some more experienced developers will appear to help.
I'll stick to writing plugins for the moment! Which reminds me: thank you @ueffel for all your work around PackageControl too!
Again, thanks for your work @polyvertex.
My code contributions to Keypirinha have been very small (and not in core obviously), such as allowing FilesCatalog to index removable (or not always available) drives, or adding PowerShell-compatible registry paths ('HKCR:' etc. prefixes) to the existing registry formats that Keypirinha searches.
Like @fran-f I'd love to try to work on small Keypirinha items that interest me, but I also work primarily in C# and only a little with the Win32 API.
For some of you, the immediate and mechanical answer to this would be "release the source code". But as I have attempted to explain multiple times, this is not ideal in this very case and it would not help the project at all on some aspects. Also, on a more personal note, I would prefer to spend my time writing code than doing code reviewing. And if there is someone out there, motivated enough to take over with their own fork of it, then why not doing it together and collaborate?
Not open-sourcing is of course your right, as is ignoring (or saying no) to those who suggest it. However, making it clear that you won't entertain pull requests when open sourcing might address your concern above? If/when you wanted you could pull in code from a fork, or request a PR. However, I can see how it still may not be ideal from your standpoint.
On the other hand, the above approach may also help you to organically identify individual(s) who you could trust even with handling PR requests; at that point, you could either only handle approvals once that named person approves them, or let that specific person approve things entirely. People like @ueffel might also be able to help, even if they can't commit now to being one of the project's only 2 coders, including without having seen the core code.
I believe you also mentioned in an earlier issue that Keypirinha's existing code & architecture may not be easily understood by others, which could result in more questions (& work) for you. I think every developer has written code like this, especially if not originally intended as open-source. Regardless, I'd again suggest it'd be completely valid for you to make it clear that you won't personally entertain such questions. A while back I also tried to help triage some Keypirinha issues, and I think you could get more volunteer(s) on that front as well if desired. Thanks again.
I've been loving this launcher for a few months now. it's really great - so thanks for your work.
like others have said, I dont have the experience you're looking for, but I'm happy to help with any linux maintenance you mention on the keypirinha site's call to arms. With that said I'm also a pretty savvy Java Developer working in the IAM space for a few years and can be pretty useful if you decide to go the Java or Kotlin route.
if nothing else I just wanted to say thanks for the software, I'll keep looking to contribute where I can if my help isn't needed like I've explained above.
Thank for @polyvertex for your work on this outstanding piece of software, definitely part of my top-2 products that I install on Windows (on-par with Everything which is also free but not opensource).
I am unfortunately not technically savvy enough on Win32/C++ to take over. And as you mention, the shift to opensource is not a silver bullet for all problems. As the author, the choice is yours and has to be respected.
I wanted to mention that Microsoft is now releasing, as part of their opensource Powertoys, something similar to Keypirinha : Powertoy Run. I did not test or use it. Contributing to it may be a way to limit your time investment while being recognized by a big player. I am however not sure the underlying solution fits your expectation.
Thanks again for your nice gift to all of your users.
To be honest, Powertoy Run is way slower and with less options/customization than Keypirinha, so are every other options that I have tried. As @Jc-L suggested, I would gladly sponsor this project since is one of the tools that I always install together with Everything the moment I format any Windows system but if your idea was to be hired by some company, I can understand that those small tips wouldn't be enough. Have you considered talking with Titus Tech Tips? I'm not related to him in any way, nor know him, but it looks like he knows about the Windows API. Also, it could serve you as getting featured so more developers would see this call for help and get to know this amazing launcher. If you're not in a hurry, I could learn about Windows API to help with the project eventually. Could it be possible to see some of the written code to determine if it's too much for me to even try or if I see it possible? I can sign whatever confidentiality agreement if required.
As others have mentioned, have you considered creating a Patreon or Github sponsors for this? Your project is big enough that many people will most likely support you.
