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Start all of your commands with a comma

https://rhodesmill.org/brandon/2009/commands-with-comma/
58•theblazehen•2d ago•11 comments

OpenCiv3: Open-source, cross-platform reimagining of Civilization III

https://openciv3.org/
637•klaussilveira•13h ago•188 comments

The Waymo World Model

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935•xnx•18h ago•549 comments

What Is Ruliology?

https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2026/01/what-is-ruliology/
35•helloplanets•4d ago•31 comments

How we made geo joins 400× faster with H3 indexes

https://floedb.ai/blog/how-we-made-geo-joins-400-faster-with-h3-indexes
113•matheusalmeida•1d ago•28 comments

Jeffrey Snover: "Welcome to the Room"

https://www.jsnover.com/blog/2026/02/01/welcome-to-the-room/
13•kaonwarb•3d ago•12 comments

Unseen Footage of Atari Battlezone Arcade Cabinet Production

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45•videotopia•4d ago•1 comments

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222•isitcontent•13h ago•25 comments

Monty: A minimal, secure Python interpreter written in Rust for use by AI

https://github.com/pydantic/monty
214•dmpetrov•13h ago•106 comments

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https://vecti.com
324•vecti•15h ago•142 comments

Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/
374•ostacke•19h ago•94 comments

Hackers (1995) Animated Experience

https://hackers-1995.vercel.app/
479•todsacerdoti•21h ago•237 comments

Microsoft open-sources LiteBox, a security-focused library OS

https://github.com/microsoft/litebox
359•aktau•19h ago•181 comments

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279•eljojo•16h ago•166 comments

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407•lstoll•19h ago•273 comments

Vocal Guide – belt sing without killing yourself

https://jesperordrup.github.io/vocal-guide/
17•jesperordrup•3h ago•10 comments

Dark Alley Mathematics

https://blog.szczepan.org/blog/three-points/
85•quibono•4d ago•21 comments

PC Floppy Copy Protection: Vault Prolok

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58•kmm•5d ago•4 comments

Delimited Continuations vs. Lwt for Threads

https://mirageos.org/blog/delimcc-vs-lwt
27•romes•4d ago•3 comments

How to effectively write quality code with AI

https://heidenstedt.org/posts/2026/how-to-effectively-write-quality-code-with-ai/
245•i5heu•16h ago•193 comments

Was Benoit Mandelbrot a hedgehog or a fox?

https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.01122
14•bikenaga•3d ago•2 comments

Introducing the Developer Knowledge API and MCP Server

https://developers.googleblog.com/introducing-the-developer-knowledge-api-and-mcp-server/
54•gfortaine•11h ago•22 comments

I spent 5 years in DevOps – Solutions engineering gave me what I was missing

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143•vmatsiiako•18h ago•65 comments

I now assume that all ads on Apple news are scams

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1061•cdrnsf•22h ago•438 comments

Learning from context is harder than we thought

https://hy.tencent.com/research/100025?langVersion=en
179•limoce•3d ago•96 comments

Understanding Neural Network, Visually

https://visualrambling.space/neural-network/
284•surprisetalk•3d ago•38 comments

Why I Joined OpenAI

https://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2026-02-07/why-i-joined-openai.html
137•SerCe•9h ago•125 comments

Show HN: R3forth, a ColorForth-inspired language with a tiny VM

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70•phreda4•12h ago•14 comments

Female Asian Elephant Calf Born at the Smithsonian National Zoo

https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/female-asian-elephant-calf-born-smithsonians-national-zoo-an...
29•gmays•8h ago•11 comments

FORTH? Really!?

https://rescrv.net/w/2026/02/06/associative
63•rescrv•21h ago•23 comments
Open in hackernews

QuickDrawViewer: A Mac OS X utility to visualise QuickDraw (PICT) files

https://github.com/wiesmann/QuickDrawViewer
62•ibobev•3mo ago

Comments

JKCalhoun•3mo ago
Opened a few PICT files I threw at it.

Looking for an Export… item but did not see that. I suppose one reason to open an old PICT file is to save it as a PNG or something that will be easier to open in the future.

duskwuff•3mo ago
Given that PICT is a vector format at heart, what'd be ideal would be a conversion to SVG. At one point I had part of a tool written to do that, but it didn't handle text very well.
JKCalhoun•3mo ago
Is it a vector format? It could capture pixels as well, and patterns.

It is, in one variant anyway, a re-playing (capture) of the QuickDraw drawing commands. It is one reason it is a hard format to decode without having the original Mac Toolbox QuickDraw code handy.

relium•3mo ago
PICT supported vector commands like FrameRect and FillOval, bitmap commands like BitsRect, and even embedded PostScript via PicComments.

Version 1 PICTs: https://show.docjava.com/posterous/file/2012/07/9614411-DOC0...

I have the Version 2 documentation around here somewhere. I don't think I've looked at it in 20 years, though.

duskwuff•3mo ago
It was a vector format which could contain embedded bitmaps - which also neatly describes SVG. The format was fairly well documented in "Inside Macintosh: Imaging With QuickDraw", particularly appendix A ("Picture Opcodes").

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/ma...

JKCalhoun•3mo ago
Then I am now surprised that SVG can embed bitmaps. Thanks.
wiesmann•3mo ago
Most of the code is agnostic from the output format, QuickDraw commands are just sent to a graphical port abstraction (in theory, there is still some untangling to do). The current implementation uses mostly Core Graphics, Core Text and to a less extent the Video-Toolbox to do the actual rendering.

I would welcome anyone wanting to implement an SVG renderer, but I'm not interested in doing so myself. My goal is to have a tool that allows the average Mac OS user to open QuickDraw files and copy-paste them wherever they need them (yes, the UX could be improved). Why did I not choose SVG?

First, PDF is widely supported on Mac OS X (and other platforms), SVG can be rendered in web-browsers and Inkscape. If you want functional copy/paste or printing, you need to use Core Graphics.

Second, Core Graphics is an API, SVG is a data format. My code tries to delegate as much as possible to the backend. So, for instance, if a QuickTime payload uses the TIFF codec, the TIFF file is just sent to the back-end, you can't embed a TIFF file in SVG, any RGB or YUV data needs to be serialized back to PNG.

Yes, this could be solved by linking in K libraries and frameworks, but my goal was to hack-around with a small (for 2025), self-sustained application.

classichasclass•3mo ago
The readme mentions a PDF conversion tool, but I just cut and pasted into Preview, and that seemed to work.
wiesmann•3mo ago
There is an export button in the right side of the toolbar. (Square with arrow going out). This will let you export the image as a PDF. You can also drag the picture to another application (or the desktop).
cactusplant7374•3mo ago
I just opened a PICT file in Preview on Mac and it also offers PDF export. What's the advantage of using this app?
teruakohatu•3mo ago
> What's the advantage of using this app?

From the README:

> Preview can only open a small subset of the files I have.

cactusplant7374•3mo ago
Ah, I missed that part.
curvaturearth•3mo ago
Love this
dietrichepp•3mo ago
Fantastic—I’ve written a QuickDraw PICT converter, but I focused narrowly on just extracting pixel data. The format is basically a way to encode QuickDraw drawing commands, and getting the original image back (in the general case) means reimplementing QuickDraw.

The old Mac game Avara used this format for levels. It was funky… you could place blocks in a 3D world, and control elevation and height by changing the corner radius of rectangles. You needed a QuickDraw image editor to make levels, like ClarisDraw.

mrcwinn•3mo ago
Great work! If I open your program in ResEdit, will I uncover a hidden Dogcow?
wiesmann•3mo ago
Thanks. The program is a "modern" Swift program, so no resource fork and no hidden DogCow.
MangoToupe•3mo ago
What is the point of a graphics api that rasterizes into semi-permanent storage? Surely you just end up with pixel-poking a granulated mess
syx•3mo ago
I really wish I'd had this tool six months ago when I was designing a GUI program for macOS 9. I wanted to import pictures from my modern laptop to a PowerBook Duo and vice versa. Converting all the assets was a pain, and I think this tool would've been incredibly convenient, even just for previewing the images.
trinix912•3mo ago
Offtopic but which tools and resources would you recommend to get started with MacOS 9 GUI development?

I’ve experience with WinAPI/MFC but the classic Macintosh API is quite different and I’d often run into hangs when trying to run simple hello world-ish C++ programs compiled with CodeWarrior.

wiesmann•3mo ago
The program existed six months ago. That said, currently it only allows to render old QuickDraw pictures on a modern Mac OS X. A tool going the other direction would be simple for bitmaps (just use PNG) or very complicated for vector data.

One thing I'm thinking about making a tool that uses old codecs to make compact images for 68K machines. Basically, use today's CPU power to make efficient road-pizza images.