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numtel

That last point, yeah, I was thinking a status bar would be handy but now that I'm typing and thinking about it, maybe I'll just change the cursor color. That's enough of an indication and then no new ui elements need to be added.

The reason it's not a single key to toggle between vertical and horizontal is because I had imagined even more directions beyond those two, diagonal in all four ways etc... we'll see if I try those out xD

Regarding the center start position: that's a bit of a departure from a text editor. This demo is supposed to be like if notepad.exe magically grew another dimension. If the origin is the center then above and left if origin would be outside the document? It doesn't make sense to me.

Thank you for your awesome feedback!!!!

I don't know what you mean by nodes? Are you referring to the menus or the 2d text editor demo

The source is on github, it's not huge. If you don't want to read it yourself, paste main.js into your llm and ask it yourself anything about it

I woke up this morning with a dream to make a two-dimensional text editor that also componentized the Windows 98-style (codename: Memphis, don't you remember back then?) menu system I've been working on for a while.

So I've come up with this demo. The scrolling isn't 100% perfect on mobile, and the popup keyboard is miffed a bit but it's great on desktop.

Super fun way to put the brain into crossword/Scrabble mode and play around with thoughts interconnecting in new ways. Then rotate and see it from the other angle.

There's CSS rules in the stylesheet for dialogs too but the demo does not use them.

Re:Show HN: Snorb.lol on Thursday April 16, 2026 @04:03AM (#47790074)
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll see what I can do a out incorporating them.

I fixed some bugs yesterday with the lemmings and sprites clipping into the ground.

Like I said, better cube houses are on my list. Please tell me more about your problem with the paths.

Thank you for engaging me with ideas! Obviously, my email is in the Help>About dialog.

The reason I've kept sprites generic is because with the url input field, it's designed so that players could input their own urls and have their maps look completely their own. The standard trees I've made are simply a suggestion. A player could make anything for the lemmings to consume/replant.

There already is randomness in when lemmings become diggers/trail blazers/dancers. I quite prefer following the style of the OG 90s lemmings game of them being little random walking dudes who sometimes take actions, but otherwise they're walking around aimlessly.

I do agree about the visible tasks. Like maybe there needs to be a way to place an exit portal and dangerous items so that it's a game about guiding these silly creatures to an end point. The entry area and exit portal could be fixed during the map generation. I don't know yet because that changes the open ended exploration part of the game that I really like. I don't want it to be the same play experience for everyone.

> a collaboration between [student] and me

"...and I"!!!

If you're going to make an effort to write, please don't grind me eyes

Re:Show HN: Snorb.lol on Wednesday April 15, 2026 @01:32AM (#47775047)
Next task I'm imagining is to make the lemming houses more elaborate, so they gradually build them more baroque.

Paths can be used to restrict where lemmings move. Lemmings bounce off them just like they would cliffs

Also, if you have any ideas for features, let me know.

I was thinking that maybe there could be some dynamic where lemmings will build paths themselves but haven't figured out the mechanism why they would want to do that yet

Most fun I've had lately has been making a mountainous terrain and cleaving lemmings as they make progress getting across to see how far they can get. Thinking in that direction of ways to extend the game...

But like I said, forks are welcome, it's open ended what you do with your snorb

> Also useless

Grow some imagination

Re:Show HN: Snorb.lol on Sunday April 12, 2026 @02:27AM (#47736697)
New game I've made over the last month, mobile/desktop windows 98 inspiration, make a terrain, plop some lemmings, put them in a forest, they'll build cities, fall in love, make babies, die... snorb.lol

Open source, gpl v3, fork it, give me prs, let's see what lemmings can get up to! Have some fun!!

Re:Learning from context is harder than we thought on Friday February 06, 2026 @02:55PM (#46917358)
There's a Terence McKenna quote about this:

> So, for instance, you know, I’ve made this example before: a child lying in a crib and a hummingbird comes into the room and the child is ecstatic because this shimmering iridescence of movement and sound and attention, it’s just wonderful. I mean, it is an instantaneous miracle when placed against the background of the dull wallpaper of the nursery and so forth. But, then, mother or nanny or someone comes in and says, “It’s a bird, baby. Bird. Bird!” And, this takes this linguistic piece of mosaic tile, and o- places it over the miracle, and glues it down with the epoxy of syntactical momentum, and, from now on, the miracle is confined within the meaning of the word. And, by the time a child is four or five or six, there- no light shines through. They're- they have tiled over every aspect of reality with a linguistic association that blunts it, limits it, and confines it within cultural expectation.

Getting close to Jim Bell's assassination politics

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32790951

I need to see cross section images of the inside of each one next to its exterior photo as well as where it came from!
Re:Formatting code should be unnecessary on Monday September 08, 2025 @05:00AM (#45166076)
With how much LLMs do nowadays, I'm waiting for the time when specifying types is unnecessary. Like, it if can write code, shouldn't we also be able to have an AI type checker?
Re:Show HN: I recreated Windows XP as my portfolio on Sunday September 07, 2025 @09:28AM (#45157984)
Also missed that double clicking the icon in the top left of the title bar closes the window. It does not toggle maximization like clicking the rest of the title bar does.
Re:Show HN: Roll a Dice on Wednesday July 16, 2025 @03:00AM (#44579490)
*roll a die ;)
Re:MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today on Saturday July 12, 2025 @06:58AM (#44541092)
I think it was a total rewrite, similar to why Winamp 2 was great, fast, not bloated but Winamp 3 was slow, adding extraneous features nobody wanted.
Re:Why Quadratic Funding Is Not Optimal on Monday June 09, 2025 @02:01PM (#44227230)
Generally, QF protocols are paired with a form of Sybil resistance.

For example Gitcoin uses passport.xyz to determine if your account is considered legitimate.

Good journalist not saying "metal detectors found..." :P
Re:Encrypt Images Without a Key Using Visual Cryptography on Thursday February 27, 2025 @01:31AM (#43191886)
If there's no key, isn't it just encoding?

Seems more like steganography

Re:Customizable HTML Select on Sunday February 23, 2025 @02:22AM (#43147423)
You do realize that that was the big problem with IE security in those days: ActiveX. You literally could embed an Excel file in your HTML page.

You could embed any native code and it would just be a small yes/no dialog to download and run it.

Re:A Vending Machine, on the Internet on Saturday February 22, 2025 @07:46AM (#43138533)
This is the analogy used in the first description of a smart contract in 1997

https://nakamotoinstitute.org/library/the-idea-of-smart-cont...

Re:Outlaw Code on Sunday February 02, 2025 @03:38AM (#42907176)
Smart contracts are a primary example of this: https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2019/05/09/control_as_liabi...
It was the same algorithm as Iron finance on Polygon the year before which imploded in the exact same way but on a more expedited timeframe because it didn't limit the apy at 20%.

The terra/luna collapse was simple to see coming as it happened exactly when the terra (stablecoin) market cap met the luna one.

It's not just flying and it's not just Americans.

Gotta keep "baby goats screaming" bookmarked to fight fire with fire.

Re:Sci-Fi Inspired Antenna Adjusts to Signal Needs on Monday December 16, 2024 @02:00AM (#42428647)
The Lexus LS 400 had an antenna that adjusted its length based on the radio station.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TRRXxFWDiY4

@ 6:05

Re:How do I pay the publisher of a web page? on Monday December 09, 2024 @04:36AM (#42364484)
You're very close to https://prove.email/
There's a range of algorithms that support homomorphism.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ElGamal_encryption

ElGamal is very simple and supports multiplicative homomorphism. If you do it over an elliptic curve, this changes to additive.

Another is NTRU, but it's naturally addictively homomorphic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTRUEncrypt

The values are added modulus 3 though so I'm not aware of any applications for it.

For example, adding cipher texts of the plaintexts [1,2,0,0] and [1,1,0,1] results in [2,0,0,1]

Re:Programming Zero Knowledge Proofs: From Zero to Hero on Monday September 02, 2024 @05:10PM (#41428861)
Ah thanks, that's what I meant

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