News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Half-Life ported to Mac OS 9 by user3939382 on Wednesday July 29, 2026 @12:19AM (#49093376)
The big blocker is actually TLS. Without it lots of tools including browsers are blocked. Now with AI I bet it is manageable, before that the effort required resulted in what you see, almost nothing.
Re:Half-Life ported to Mac OS 9 by userbinator on Wednesday July 29, 2026 @02:19AM (#49093992)
TLS is not really that much of a blocker, nor was AI necessary to clear that hurdle (albeit crypto is fundamentally "just maths" and thus very, very portable): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36486512
Re:Half-Life ported to Mac OS 9 by user3939382 on Thursday July 30, 2026 @09:31PM (#49118038)
It’s a blocker bc it’s complex and not available. By blocker I mean huge hurdle, not so much saying it’s impossible. Your link shows work has been done there.
Re:Half-Life ported to Mac OS 9 by Palomides on Wednesday July 29, 2026 @07:56AM (#49096295)
modern tls libraries on classic macs has been available for at least 6 years, and was pretty easily possible sooner if anyone bothered, no AI needed
Re:Half-Life ported to Mac OS 9 by user3939382 on Thursday July 30, 2026 @09:32PM (#49118049)
A library and working OS utilities including a browser are not the same thing. A year or so ago I was able to get 1 very old browser working but nothing else had TLS. The browser also didn’t have modern JS which is another similar non-trivial issue.