{"slug": "hypercard", "name": "HyperCard", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 3, "warners": 0, "score": 2.638, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2025-11-19", "latest": "2026-09-14", "why": "HyperCard gave you a somewhat natural language, instant persistent database and UI builder, and objects (stack, card, field ...) and messages.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "HyperCard gave you a somewhat natural language, instant persistent database and UI builder, and objects (stack, card, field ...) and messages.", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["HyperCard"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 795053440, "item_id": 49690840, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49690840", "by": "k310", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "HyperCard gave you a somewhat natural language, instant persistent database and UI builder, and objects (stack, card, field ...) and messages.", "excerpt": "> Clay Shirky wrote in 2004 that building an application for a few dozen users was \"an absurd target population.\" Twenty-one years later, it\u2019s time to rethink what\u2019s possible. A long time ago, I remember an earthquake, I wrote an app for our director and another for my boss, about 35 users short of a few dozen, a simulator for sensor tradeoffs, and a form-based \"man page\" documentation generator for some image-proces", "context": "", "use_case": "rapid prototyping of small apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Never Want to Use Third-Party Software Again"}, {"id": 758047200, "item_id": 47377950, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47377950", "by": "zackmorris", "date": "2026-03-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Maybe get back to what we used to have with apps like HyperCard, FileMaker and Microsoft Access", "excerpt": "A -> (expletive) -> B I think we're all in denial about how bad software engineering has gotten. When I look at what's required to publish a web page today vs in 1996, I'm appalled. When someone asks me how to get started, all I can do is look at them and say \"I'm so sorry\": https://xkcd.com/1168/ So \"coding was always the hard part\". All AI does is obfuscate how the sausage gets made. I don't see it fixing the under", "context": "", "use_case": "user-controlled app building", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Didn't Simplify Software Engineering: It Just Made Bad Engineering Easier"}, {"id": 735805585, "item_id": 45987849, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45987849", "by": "analog31", "date": "2025-11-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've always preferred tools that were favored by hobbyists and students, including 8-bit BASIC, Turbo Pascal, HyperCard", "excerpt": "When talking among engineers about Arduino, I find that it always requires a bit of explanation, because there's Arduino, but then there's Arduino. \"Arduino\" is the name of the original, humble little microcontroller board. It's a brand name for a series of boards ranging from simple and cheap, to quite elaborate. 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A long time ago, I remember an earthquake, I wrote an app for our director and another for my boss, about 35 users short of a few dozen, a simulator for sensor tradeoffs, and a form-based \"man page\" documentation generator for some image-proces", "context": "", "use_case": "rapid prototyping of small apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Never Want to Use Third-Party Software Again"}, {"id": 758047200, "item_id": 47377950, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47377950", "by": "zackmorris", "date": "2026-03-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Maybe get back to what we used to have with apps like HyperCard, FileMaker and Microsoft Access", "excerpt": "A -> (expletive) -> B I think we're all in denial about how bad software engineering has gotten. When I look at what's required to publish a web page today vs in 1996, I'm appalled. When someone asks me how to get started, all I can do is look at them and say \"I'm so sorry\": https://xkcd.com/1168/ So \"coding was always the hard part\". All AI does is obfuscate how the sausage gets made. I don't see it fixing the under", "context": "", "use_case": "user-controlled app building", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Didn't Simplify Software Engineering: It Just Made Bad Engineering Easier"}, {"id": 735805585, "item_id": 45987849, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45987849", "by": "analog31", "date": "2025-11-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've always preferred tools that were favored by hobbyists and students, including 8-bit BASIC, Turbo Pascal, HyperCard", "excerpt": "When talking among engineers about Arduino, I find that it always requires a bit of explanation, because there's Arduino, but then there's Arduino. \"Arduino\" is the name of the original, humble little microcontroller board. It's a brand name for a series of boards ranging from simple and cheap, to quite elaborate. It's a ecosystem of firmware development tools and libraries that revolve around the Arduino API, that h", "context": "microprocessor developer since 1984", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Death of Arduino?"}]}