Norton Commander - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Commander. Not sure how elegant on the inside, but it comes from the era when software development was not so fast paced. And the fact that it inspired so many spin-offs (just to mention few that I personally used: Volkov Commander, Midnight Commander, FAR Manager, and my favourite - DOS Navigator (it had spreadsheet!)).
Ask HN: What are your favorite examples of elegant software?
141–150 of 422 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite examples of elegant software?
#1424.3BSD Unix. Arguably, the first modern operating system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Berkeley_Softwa...
Saying 4.3BSD Unix is like saying SVR4 Unix. Which implementation ? As far as i know SunOS (4.1x) was a 4.3BSD implementation and Solaris was a SVR4 implementation.
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite examples of elegant software?
#143WireGuard
It’s this!
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite examples of elegant software?
#144Always impressed with Palantir's software.
Can you give an example? I’ve never seen it myself. What do you find the most impressive about it? Any links where those parts can be seen in action? Also, what would be the closest competitor, and in what regard are they worse?
"Any links where those parts can be seen in action?"
No, but when they arrest you, you see the effect :)
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite examples of elegant software?
#145Mathematica
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite examples of elegant software?
#146Graphviz.
Non-trivial graphs will make it produce hard-to-read output, and you can try fiddling with it forever to get better output. But it's still the first thing I reach for when I have to make a graph.
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite examples of elegant software?
#147Turbo Vision/Turbo Pascal for MS-DOS. Borland put together one of the best instances of an object oriented library that just worked. The follow up with Delphi for Windows was the most productive environment I have ever experienced, until I was priced out of it in their pivot to "Enterprise" customers. Nothing since is anywhere near as productive. Lazarus is ok, but the documentation is horrible, (almost non-existent,…
There's Lazarus project (https://www.lazarus-ide.org/) - which is a Delphi compatible IDE. I've used it once to build a simple UI app, and it was a real nostalgic look back in time. Not to mention that it was extremely simple to build the app.
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite examples of elegant software?
#148TiddlerWiki.
It's not everyone's cup of tea, but given the limitations it has decided to work within, it really is a wonder.
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite examples of elegant software?
#149Notational Velocity
Very simple, instant search, and having the same UI for searching and creating notes is genius - way fewer duplicated notes, for one thing.
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite examples of elegant software?
#150Open Hardware Monitor (OHM)
It's written in C# and the design seemed clean and approachable (at least a few years back when I tailored it a bit for my own use).