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Show HN: Extracting React apps from Figma Make's undocumented binary format

albertsikkema.com

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Re: Show HN: Extracting React apps from Figma Make's undocumented binary format

#21

Post by albertsikkema »

estimator7292 wrote: post #15
dfajgljsldkjag wrote: post #10

It's interesting that the AI tool just writes react rather than creating a figma drawing. All that training on writing code has made it easier for AI to just write the app than make an illustration of it.

I mean, it makes sense. In order to sketch out a screen, you need to run (most of) a layout engine in your head. If you're an AI, it's simpler to just... use a layout engine.

It's a pattern I see with more tools (lovable.dev does something similar). However looking at the code produced, lovable seems to be more precise about the code itself: just cleaner even over several iterations. Which is nice because it gives you a decent platform to continue on with your own code.

Re: Show HN: Extracting React apps from Figma Make's undocumented binary format

#22

Post by albertsikkema »

doctorpangloss wrote: post #8
voidUpdate wrote: post #5

> First thing I did was look at the raw bytes: xxd -l 4 "ClientApp.make" I recommend using the linux "file" command, since it will generally be able to tell you these sorts of things straight away. I've been working on a long-term project to directly import figma design files into Unity, so I've ended up coming across a lot of these things myself

Tell it to Mr. Claude. Who do you think made all these decisions?

Even if that was the case: is it a real problem? I am not a purist in any sense: whatever tool gets the job done, I am fine with it.

Re: Show HN: Extracting React apps from Figma Make's undocumented binary format

#23

Post by albertsikkema »

nadis wrote: post #9

This is fascinating, thanks for sharing! I also appreciated the "when would you need this" section at the end. > "When Would You Need This? - Client hands you a Figma Make prototype but not the design file - You want to audit AI-generated code before deployment - You need to migrate away from Figma Make to a different stack - You want to extract design tokens for your design system - Pure curiosity about how Figma st…

Thanks!

Re: Show HN: Extracting React apps from Figma Make's undocumented binary format

#24

Post by albertsikkema »

voidUpdate wrote: post #5

> First thing I did was look at the raw bytes: xxd -l 4 "ClientApp.make" I recommend using the linux "file" command, since it will generally be able to tell you these sorts of things straight away. I've been working on a long-term project to directly import figma design files into Unity, so I've ended up coming across a lot of these things myself

Thanks, will keep that one in mind for next time!

Re: Show HN: Extracting React apps from Figma Make's undocumented binary format

#25

Post by frumplestlatz »

albertsikkema wrote: post #19
frumplestlatz wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems so. It should be much more explicitly disclaimed.

Interesting that you feel this is necessary. Why would a disclaimer be needed? If I read the technical docs for a library and use that in my code, should I explicitly mention that I got this from the docs? I know a lot, but am happy to admit I do not know everything, so I am happy to use tools that help me. And I got what I wanted in the end: being able to continue with my real work: helping a client.

> When a human presents work under their own name, there is an unspoken but widely relied-upon assumption that the presenter has exercised judgment over the space of possible choices and can explain why these ones were taken.

> …

> If you attach your name to work, you are asserting that you can meaningfully answer “why this and not something else?” across the decisions that matter. Tools that produce answers faster than humans think require new language, because our old words still imply thought occurred.

Re: Show HN: Extracting React apps from Figma Make's undocumented binary format

#26

Post by voidUpdate »

albertsikkema wrote: post #19
frumplestlatz wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems so. It should be much more explicitly disclaimed.

Interesting that you feel this is necessary. Why would a disclaimer be needed? If I read the technical docs for a library and use that in my code, should I explicitly mention that I got this from the docs? I know a lot, but am happy to admit I do not know everything, so I am happy to use tools that help me. And I got what I wanted in the end: being able to continue with my real work: helping a client.

This felt like an article of "This is how I worked this out". If you found something out through the docs, I'd be interested to know that. If you found it out through asking an LLM, that would be helpful to know as well. Maybe other people would write that kind of article differently, but when I write them, I try to put in as much detail as I can about how I worked something out, in case it's useful to other people
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