I really like Hook and use it all the time, but it could be so much better

[LucB]

thanks for the feedback, @floflo . just a few quick remarks before the week-end.

@floflo

• Missing indicators: I do not have a prominent visual indicator if something i am looking at (in the front app) is “hooked”. Yes, 3.6 does a better job at this, but there is a significant delay (but that’s probably due to the OS).

Per “Hooked” indicator in menu bar icon – Hook, you can set the polling interval using the Terminal app (command line)

defaults menubar.icon.status.interval

The menu bar icon is just a first step. We’re very likely to create a floating window which is both a status indicator and drag and drop tool for hooking things together and doing other things.

@floflo

• Long-Term compatibility I worry about Hook going away in 1, 5, 10 years and being left without a way to see related files.

we address those concerns in detail on our We Value Interoperability openness page. A comparison is open meta where we wrote

The reader may recall “OpenMeta ” project (tagging). OpenMeta data were eventually migrated (or at least can be migrated) into macOS itself. No data was ever lost for compatibility reasons. But OpenMeta had a significant problem which Hook does not have: it stored data in extended file attributes (xattributes [see man xattr]) which are not adequately documented by Apple. Hook in contrast plays by the rules.

Another point is that there are ways of using Hook that don’t involve hook:// URLs and Hook tends to default to simply returning native URLs (where Hook doesn’t we often offer two integration options). For instance, with Obsidian Hook defaults to obsidian:// URLs but offers two other options).

but the page has a lot of other points.

@floflo

After using Hook for more than a year, is still struggle when to copy, when to paste, what exactly i am pasting:

The issue is partly that Hook is a very general and versatile tool, that can be used in many ways (.hook files, hooking things together, copying and pasting links into other content, and simply bookmarking with ⌘D). We probably should create some videos and documentation to help people who struggle with the large number of use cases and ways of using it. We could spell out some use cases and usage patterns. For example, when writing a document or email, it’s often useful to collect references using Hook’s Copy Link function , which is cross browser.

Too many uses cases for me to list here, but some readers may wish to contribute their Hook usage best practices, tips, views etc.

Also I agree there’s a lot left for us to do with Hook. And it’s just the beginning. We’re grateful to have input from our users, board of advisors and others.