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sheodox @lemmy.world
Alexandrite (a desktop-first Lemmy web app)

[Alexandrite (a desktop-first Lemmy web app)] New features! Side-by-side feed layout, themes, community blocking, better markdown formatting, all client-side API usage

alexandrite.app

I'm the dev of Alexandrite, a desktop-first alternative Lemmy web UI. If you missed it, here's my announcement.

alexandrite.app - !alexandrite@lemmy.world - Github

I've been working on a load of stuff lately and I wanted to post an update on all the things I've added since the first announcement.

There's a new feed layout! Now when scrolling on a feed of posts, in addition to the old overlay view, you can now view a post side-by-side with the post list, which makes it easier to casually look through posts. By default it will pick the best layout for your screen size, but you can force it to use either the column or the overlay layout in the settings.

I've added some basic theming! All of the purple colors in text/borders/backgrounds you see on Alexandrite are based on the same hue, now you can completely change the look of the site with a slider in the settings. Here are some examples:

You can now block/unblock communities, as well as block communities directly from post lists!

You can now choose if NSFW thumbnails are either: hidden (unless you click it), blurred, or always shown.

Markdown formatting is much better. Most things are supported now, and Alexandrite will automatically detect links to users/communities/posts and change their URLs to their page on Alexandrite, making it easier to browse.

All of the Lemmy API calls are now client side, previously it would be proxied through Alexandrite's server, but that has been removed, so now nothing is sent to Alexandrite's servers. This should make it easier to self host, but I haven't yet explored that.

That's all the big important things. Lots of bug fixing behind the scenes too. Hope you like it!

36 comments

  • This is now my default way of using Lemmy (on desktop). Looks superb, is fast and intuitive.

    I have one niggle so minor it seems churlish even mentioning it but, for me, the paragraph leading could be increased a touch. It's not awful in any sense but paragraphs just feel a little tight. That's just my own thing though probably.

    Great work u/sheodox :)

    (line-height: 1.5rem is my own personal sweet-spot)

    • Thanks so much! I'm glad you like it.

      You make a good point, check it out now, I've increased the spacing in and around paragraphs. You also reminded me I was sitting on a few other styling fixes I forgot to commit too so I'm glad you pointed that out.

  • So do you have any thoughts on the possibility of this being folded in as an alternative UI straight from the instance?

    As you probably know, lemmy.world added wefwef/voyager as an alternative for their instance. Would alexandrite being a similar alternative interest you or be viable?

    Given lemmy's hard separation between backend and frontend, this sort of thing seems like a nice advantage the platform can enjoy ... multiple frontends developed by the community for us all to enjoy as we wish.

    • I think that would be neat, though a little scary as It's just been one person frantically fixing bugs and adding features. It could definitely be done! I need to work on the self hosting instructions and probably provide a Dockerfile at some point first. Once Alexandrite matures further I could see it happening if any instance owners were interested, I think that'd be pretty neat.

  • The best Lemmy web app so far, a light theme will be much appreciated, also the voted vote counts color does not reflect the hue setting.

    • Thanks! The background stuff was easy just because of how I had already set things up, I plan on adding some more customization at some point for vote colors, links etc.

  • Oh my ... that column layout ... fuck yes! Even showing the preview at the same time as the text editing window ... wonderful stuff!!

    Probably the best way to consume lemmy on desktop right now!

    @sheodox@lemmy.world are you on mastodon? Would you mind if I shared this on mastodon?

36 comments