Comment by pratyahava

thanks to the author of the article, it inspired me to try making a small gui app i wanted for long time - it simply reads and shows the contents of the system clipboard in a window. and it was really super easy, i didn't need xcode, only `swiftc` from command line. honestly i didn't know i can make an app without opening xcode, now i want to make more :) so i made the app with approx 500 lines of Swift, with keyboard hotkeys for navigation and style change (fonts, colors, window size), just the way i love it.

  cmd+U scroll to beginning 
  cmd+I scroll to end
  cmd+u page up
  cmd+i page down
  cmd+j one line up
  cmd+k one line down
  cmd+- font size decrease
  cmd+= font size increase
  cmd+0 font size reset to default
  cmd+3 default font
  cmd+4 alternative monospace font
  cmd+[ grow left window border
  cmd+] grow right window border
  cmd+{ shrink right window border
  cmd+} shrink left window border
  cmd+9 switch background and foreground color

all this in one day, with huge help of duck.ai which is completely free. the app size is approx 300kb. using it feels great because i can do the whole cycle with keyboard only:

  - cmd+space to open spotlight search
  - type the name of the app, enter, it opens a new window with clipboard contents, i inspect it with keyboard hotkeys only
  - cmd+q to exit or cmd+tab to switch back to the prev app

for me personally the standard gui apps are annoying because of the standard kb shortcuts - they are hard to remember and even hard to reach. i prefer "sort of vi navigation" because i can keep my hands for navigation at the same position as for typing.