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#spacemacs
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2017-11-06
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ag06:11:03

has anyone use official Slack layer? I'm struggling to make it work reliably with a private team

ag06:11:35

somehow when I select a channel, it doesn't show me all the messages, it shows from a day before, not the latest

jeff.terrell14:11:46

Whoa, there's an official Slack layer? I'm going to have to check that out. I tried to get slack.el working a while back and eventually gave up.

jumar14:11:54

I tried to use that but eventually gave up too - it was unreliable and at the end, less efficient to use for me . I guess I'll just stick with slack app and won't try to use Emacs for everything 🙂.

vuuvi15:11:11

tbh I have no interest in integrating slack in spacemacs - I like being able to close it down! I’d get too distracted!

jeff.terrell15:11:43

Ha, it'd be nice to have that luxury—I need to be reachable via Slack for work. simple_smile I'm just glad we're finally starting to get migrated far enough away from Slack that I can avoid keeping that open on my desktop all the time—especially now that it started playing video ads and sucking lots of memory. 😱

vuuvi18:11:20

@jeff.terrell I sort of need to be reachable by slack. I only really use it in the office and frequently people will come over to ask me a question

vuuvi18:11:34

when did slack add video?

ag19:11:11

So, I have played with emacs-slack package and Spacemacs Slack layer yesterday: Conclusion: it does require aggressive yak shaving, but I like it. I think it is nice to finally have access to all the language tools (syntax-checker, abbrev, thesaurus, etc) right at the place where I type my messages. I have found a critical bug (until that fixed I cannot make the switch) - basically if a channel/room has a message with an attachment - it may not display it and the messages following it. But I think it is very real and we might be finally very close to get nice Slack client that doesn't use gig of RAM and very keyboard friendly

ag19:11:05

I am very optimistic about that package, and will definitely try again to yakshave on it

jeff.terrell19:11:51

All of this is 🎵 to my 👂!

ag19:11:38

An alternative solution personally for me could be something that would allow me to communicate with the native Slack app. Something similar to "atomic-chrome" extension and emacs package. Yes, I can edit in Emacs anything what's in the browser and that's totally cool. You may ask: why not use Slack in browser then - I have tried, but the default keybindings are bogus, and they conflict with my other keys (that I've set up system-wide). There's no easy way to quickly jump back to Slack when it's in the Chrome Tab. It's even more annoying if it's in its own browser window. So if I can't find a way to use emacs-slack, I will have to try to explore a way to use emacs protocol. But that doesn't feel like a very solid plan

ag19:11:20

A few things that I was able to "fix" for myself using Hammerspoon on OSX (unfortunately Linux doesn't have anything similar to that). - whenever I use "jump to Slack" it pops-up its QuickSwitcher, allowing me to jump to a room/channel and start typing - I can use C-o/C-i to jump back and forth (between the conversations) - I can scroll up and down in the thread with C-e/C-y (just like in Vim and Spacemacs) - I use better key combo for quick reaction - C-r - potentially I can get a quick way of doing :thumbsup: and Unfortunately these are the things I still cannot do without having to reach for the mouse: - start a new thread - select any message in the thread and: - edit it - copy link to a message - share message etc.

jeff.terrell19:11:04

At this point are you talking about using these bindings in the regular electron-based Slack.app, or what?

ag19:11:42

Yeah, I was able to customize a few things using Hammerspoon

ag19:11:56

Sometime ago I have built Hammerspoon config inspired by Spacemacs. and naturally I called it Spacehammer https://github.com/agzam/spacehammer

jeff.terrell19:11:42

OK, yeah. A couple things about that: command-shift-backslash lets you add a reaction to the most recent message. And the up arrow lets you edit your most recent message. But, as you probably know, they don't generalize to any message.

jeff.terrell19:11:08

Most of my Slack use is mouse-less, and they generally do a pretty decent job of keyboard-friendliness, but yeah, it's not 100%.

ag19:11:46

I still would like to be able to type at least some of my messages in Emacs.

jeff.terrell19:11:41

Yeah…I mean, I've gotten comfortable with the emacs-ish bindings that are prevalent in macOS. Not exactly emacs, but then it kinda can't be given the way macOS uses the meta key in text fields. You know about those bindings, right?

ag19:11:41

yeah, but I really, really want to deal with any text that is longer that a few words in Emacs

jeff.terrell19:11:16

Cool. I don't personally rely much on syntax-checker, abbrev, thesaurus, etc. myself, but makes sense why you'd want that. 👍