[HN Gopher] MS Paint IDE
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       MS Paint IDE
        
       Author : scoopertrooper
       Score  : 160 points
       Date   : 2021-06-12 05:14 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (ms-paint-i.de)
 (TXT) w3m dump (ms-paint-i.de)
        
       | tpmx wrote:
       | _Superiority: It 's not Eclipse._
       | 
       | Sold.
        
       | develatio wrote:
       | I bet the author had a lot of fun, but still, I must ask: "why,
       | oh why!!?? Just why!!?"
        
       | bronzeage wrote:
       | I want to see this working in python - good luck reading
       | whitespace in OCR...
        
       | neogodless wrote:
       | My curiosity is piqued, but I also found it hard to navigate this
       | web site. How do I see screenshots? When I clicked "Info" on the
       | Theming section I was taken back to the top of the home page
       | 
       | (Firefox, Android.)
        
         | pininja wrote:
         | Skimming through the demo video on the homepage is rewarding.
        
         | zksmk wrote:
         | I'm also on Firefox (Focus) on Android. I found the GitHub link
         | at the bottom of the page:
         | https://github.com/MSPaintIDE/MSPaintIDE . It has screenshots
         | and a video of usage.
        
       | nmstoker wrote:
       | Is this meant to be some sort of amusing tool in the spirit of
       | "because we can" or is there a genuine practical purpose to it?
        
         | grawprog wrote:
         | >Can read, parse, and highlight code from purely image files
         | 
         | >Finding and replacing of text from image files
         | 
         | These two features actually seem pretty useful. There's been
         | more than one time i've found code as an image or something it
         | would have been nice to be able to copy.
         | 
         | To be honest, it's come up enough that i've wanted to be able
         | to copy text directly from an image I've wondered if such a
         | tool existed. Never enough to actually go look for one, I'm
         | sure many exist, but enough that i've thought about it at
         | least.
        
           | artificial wrote:
           | There's an app called Memos on iOS that has that capability.
           | It's great for searching images for text, for example I use
           | it to take photos of my receipts, menus, screenshots, and
           | entirely it's on device and nearly instant (with 40k images).
           | I'm sure other apps exist for various platforms and in the
           | same niche. Looks like iOS 15 is adding text selection to
           | their photos tool so if there's a phone number visible it's
           | selectable and interactive.
        
         | mathhulk wrote:
         | No general purpose. I know the guy who made this and the hype
         | actually started on a Minecraft forum for developers where
         | there were a lot of Eclipse vs. IntelliJ arguments. It was a
         | hilarious addition to any "What is the best IDE?" threads! He
         | became quite interested in OCR and thought this would be a fun
         | project and thus MS Paint IDE was born!
        
       | bob1029 wrote:
       | mspaint is still one of those things I instantly reach for when
       | I've got a framebuffer on my clipboard and I quickly need to make
       | edits for pasting into email/issue/etc.
       | 
       | Almost everyone else on my team uses some other fancy bullshit
       | that is probably better in every way, but I have found deep
       | comfort in the simplicity & speed of this ancient application.
       | 
       | My preference for mspaint is probably out of habit from working
       | for a megacorp that disallowed installing of _any_ third party
       | applications on work computers. It was the most accessible option
       | on any computer in the org.
        
         | tyingq wrote:
         | Paint.net is free and gives you photoshop-ish functionality
         | with a more mspaint type of UI. You would probably like it.
         | https://getpaint.net
        
         | canadianfella wrote:
         | You call screenshots framebuffers?
        
         | NikolaNovak wrote:
         | It's the most accessible on any corporate computer, but also
         | fast to start and fast to use.
         | 
         | I use Greenshot to capture images, but its image editor cannot
         | move rasterized bitmap around... so I still need to go to MS
         | Paint or equivalent.
         | 
         | Interestingly, the Paint 3D that now ships with Windows, is a
         | strangely unfocused app.
        
       | hudo wrote:
       | Jesus what a colossal waste of time
        
       | davidscolgan wrote:
       | It feels like there is a kernel of something realllly cool here
       | but I can't quite tell what it is.
        
         | Gene_Parmesan wrote:
         | I think the whole idea is cool! It doesn't have to be useful to
         | be cool, in fact some of the coolest projects are eminently
         | unuseful.
         | 
         | I think this is an awesome resume project. They've built an IDE
         | (which is impressive by itself), and then they've got this
         | whole parsing code from OCR thing on top that's not necessarily
         | useful but man is it cool. The fact that it shows a good sense
         | of humor is just icing on the cake.
         | 
         | Like, search and replace on pictures of code contained in PNG
         | files... Just amazing.
        
       | londons_explore wrote:
       | While this is satire, it does raise the question:...
       | 
       | Is it time to consider what benefits more advanced file formats
       | for source code could offer?
       | 
       | Like in this case for example, the image format could allow
       | doodles, notes, and diagrams to be in the margins of the code...
        
         | rvnx wrote:
         | https://youtu.be/mBgIBF9Y6PE?t=485
         | 
         | "We have graphics in the source-code"
        
           | twoknee wrote:
           | Rest in peace Terry.
        
           | underwater wrote:
           | I've not seen his livestreams before, but this lived up to
           | expectations. Within two minutes he's gone from demoing some
           | innovative tech to calling people the n-word and spouting
           | conspiracies about the CIA.
        
         | jorl17 wrote:
         | I loved how TempleOS embedded 3D sprites right into the source
         | code!
        
           | aunetx wrote:
           | This man was really smart...
        
       | pininja wrote:
       | I can finally put MS Paint back on my resume under "technical"
       | skills!
       | 
       | Amazing dedication, made my day!
        
       | alberto-m wrote:
       | Related:
       | 
       | 93 % of Paint Splatters Are Valid Perl Programs
       | (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19576425)
        
       | sfgweilr4f wrote:
       | This has a vaguely steam punk sensibility of a rethink of those
       | old punch cards using only technology / techniques from the
       | current era. Instead of the cards you've got image files.
       | 
       | Maybe I missed it, but it would be good if it also created image
       | outputs from the program stdout.
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | Making images executable sounds like a bad idea.
        
       | ak39 wrote:
       | DIWHY
       | 
       | (Incredible talent shown though)
        
       | arthurcolle wrote:
       | Is this more of a...
       | 
       | "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they
       | could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
       | 
       | or a
       | 
       | "We choose to go to the Moon not because it is easy but because
       | it is hard."
       | 
       | situation?
        
         | edoceo wrote:
         | Yes.
        
         | raghuveerdotnet wrote:
         | Lol. Looks more like the first option to me, but I also feel
         | that there is something very very special about these kind of
         | efforts and people who don't mind spending their time and
         | energy on things like this, precisely because of the fact that
         | the world is filled with the 'useful-or-not' types. In fact, I
         | feel we need a lot more of these 'do-I-find-it-personally-
         | interesting-or-not' types, so that the rest of us can keep
         | riding the 'whether-or-not' bandwagon and when that one off
         | 'interesting-or-not' turns out to be useful, in ways we didn't
         | foresee, we can ask them to join us.
        
       | matsemann wrote:
       | The video where he does search&replace on the images using OCR
       | shows how much effort went into this. Just wild, haha.
        
       | nxpnsv wrote:
       | Looks like its finally time for me to switch to windows...
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Some past threads:
       | 
       |  _MS Paint IDE_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24290834 -
       | Aug 2020 (9 comments)
       | 
       |  _MS Paint IDE_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17958021 -
       | Sept 2018 (34 comments)
       | 
       |  _Coding in MS Paint_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6589881 - Oct 2013 (4
       | comments)
        
       | snarfy wrote:
       | Makes me want to take screenshots and paste them as comments in
       | the code, with circles and arrows and stuff.
        
       | dmz73 wrote:
       | I know MS Paint is seen as a joke but what is the Linux program
       | with equivalent functionality that actually works? Recently I
       | wanted to copy image from Firefox and paste it into a program to
       | crop and add some text. Ubuntu did not have a program installed
       | that would let me do that. I tried few different programs
       | available in the repository and none of them worked well enough
       | to perform this task. Even GIMP was not usable because the icons
       | and text would not scale up enough to be visible by human eye on
       | 4k 15" laptop screen. In the end I had to reboot into Windows and
       | use MS Paint which had this done in a flash. So, what is the
       | Linux Paint that actually works like MS Paint?
        
         | primaryobjects wrote:
         | A great web-based version is https://www.photopea.com
        
           | quickthrower2 wrote:
           | That's a web based version of photoshop!
        
         | olivierestsage wrote:
         | Your point is well made, but for anyone wondering about this,
         | I've found Krita[1] to be better than the GIMP for everyday use
         | like this.
         | 
         | [1] https://krita.org/en/
        
         | UbrtrbNchDneRle wrote:
         | ImageMagick. Even has a command line interface!
         | 
         | On a serious note, I don't have any problems with GIMP, 2.10 is
         | supposed to have hiDPI support. Have you tried Krita and
         | MyPaint?
        
         | fuball63 wrote:
         | The one I always use is Kolourpaint. Installable via apt.
        
         | quickthrower2 wrote:
         | I use mspaint seriously for mock-ups. Because you can't do too
         | much you dont waste time on perfectionism you can just do
         | enough to communicate a design. It's a brain hack. Lack of
         | features (and vectors) is a feature!
        
       | b20000 wrote:
       | i thought this was going to generate code based on drawings you
       | made in ms paint.
        
         | pininja wrote:
         | If you can draw convincing enough text with a paint brush the
         | OCR should pick it up.
         | 
         | But yeah next level would be drawing a square inside of a
         | rectangle to generate "class Square extends Rectangle"
        
       | smegma2 wrote:
       | > MS Paint IDE is a program that can read a normal image file
       | _saved with MS Paint_
       | 
       | I'm curious is it reading the image or using something about the
       | way MS paint stores its data?
        
         | RubbaBoy wrote:
         | It reads the actual image, it could be saved with any program
        
       | chews wrote:
       | This is the type of wild stuff I come to HN for... will I ever
       | use it? No. Is it amazing? Eff yes.
        
         | forgotmypw17 wrote:
         | If you already have a lot of Java stuff on your resume, why not
         | add it for a bit of humor?
         | 
         | Of course, you'd have to at least get it working and play
         | around.
        
       | chirau wrote:
       | MS Paint's convenience and simplicity is underrated. I end up
       | subconsciously using it more often than I think I do. Screenshot
       | pastes, quick edits to blur out stuff before sharing etc.
        
         | jraph wrote:
         | > Screenshot pastes
         | 
         | This is a failure of Windows's screenshot tool though, in my
         | opinion. I find this incredibly clunky. On Plasma/KDE, pressing
         | "print screen" takes a screenshot of the complete screen, and a
         | dialog opens and offers you to copy the screenshot into the
         | clipboard, to save it in a file or to open / edit it with the
         | tool of your choice. You can also take another screenshot of
         | the entire screen, or a window, or an area that you can draw
         | with the mouse, with a delay or not.
         | 
         | On other environments, the screenshot is automatically saved in
         | a file without interaction. I'm not a huge fan but this is what
         | you end up doing most of the time on Windows anyway, but by
         | manually pasting in Paint and saving.
        
           | pseudosavant wrote:
           | Pre Windows 10 I'd agree. Try Win+Shift+S on Windows 10.
        
             | jraph wrote:
             | Good to know, what does it do?
             | 
             | Too bad it's not bound to the Print Screen key but I guess
             | it would break many people's workflow.
        
               | gregorkas wrote:
               | It allows you to select a region of the screen, then
               | copies it to your clipboard, so you can easily paste it
               | to other programs. It's the best workflow there is
               | because it requires no other running tools, and the
               | binding is even simpler than ctrl+cmd+shift+4 on MacOS.
        
               | whywhywhywhy wrote:
               | The is an option for this in Ease of Use > Keyboard >
               | Print Screen shortcut
        
           | tofflos wrote:
           | Try Windows-Shift-S if you have the Feature Update for
           | Windows 10 20H2.
        
           | sorenjan wrote:
           | Win+PrtScr saves the screenshot as a PNG file in
           | Pictures\Screenshots.
           | 
           | Windows also ships with a tool called Snipping tool[0], but
           | that now says that it will be replaced by Snip & Sketch [1].
           | 
           | If you want to quickly take a cropped screenshot you can use
           | Win+Shift+S. It only saves to the clipboard, but a lot of
           | places, like imgur and Github, supports pasting images so I
           | often find it more convenient than to have a bunch of old
           | files cluttering the system.
           | 
           | [0] https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/use-snipping-
           | too...
           | 
           | [1] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/snip-
           | sketch/9mz95kl8mr0l?a...
        
             | Gene_Parmesan wrote:
             | Snip and sketch allows you to save a copy of your snip. For
             | me, that's the tool that comes up when I do the Win+Shift+S
             | shortcut. Really handy tool and shortcut.
        
         | vecplane wrote:
         | Alternatively, Paint.NET is the go-to for all of my image
         | needs.
        
       | mathhulk wrote:
       | For reference:
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24290834
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17958021
       | 
       | I'm glad to see this continue blowing up! Love you RubbaBoy <3
        
         | RubbaBoy wrote:
         | Thanks for the support as always <3 Glad people still find
         | enjoyment in this cursed project
        
       | jcelerier wrote:
       | finally we can get a fix for
       | https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5508110/why-is-this-prog...
        
         | tester756 wrote:
         | haha, that's really good thread
        
         | chungy wrote:
         | It's funny, but the OP probably overplayed their hand. No
         | newbie is going to figure out how to install three compilers.
         | ;)
        
       | warpech wrote:
       | But does it work with Wine?
        
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       (page generated 2021-06-13 23:00 UTC)