
MacPaint and QuickDraw Source Code (2010) - pbreit
http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/macpaint-and-quickdraw-source-code/
======
coldcode
I also love this quote: "When the Lisa team was pushing to finalize their
software in 1982, project managers started requiring programmers to submit
weekly forms reporting on the number of lines of code they had written. Bill
Atkinson thought that was silly. For the week in which he had rewritten
QuickDraw’s region calculation routines to be six times faster and 2000 lines
shorter, he put “-2000″ on the form. After a few more weeks the managers
stopped asking him to fill out the form, and he gladly complied."

Even back then we had stupid process.

~~~
dboreham
>Even back then we had stupid process.

Having done this since then, my feeling is we had _more_ stupid process back
then than today. It'd take a few hours and a few drinks to get to the bottom
of why, but I recall the publication of books like "Code Complete" (1994?) as
the beginning of the widespread push back against complete stupidity such as
ISO9001.

------
farnsworthy
“It’s an art form, like any other art form… I would spend time rewriting whole
sections of code to make them more cleanly organized, more clear. I’m a firm
believer that the best way to prevent bugs is to make it so that you can read
through the code and understand exactly what it’s doing… And maybe that was a
little bit counter to what I ran into when I first came to Apple… If you want
to get it smooth, you’ve got to rewrite it from scratch at least five times.”

~~~
laythea
Agreed. Going through that process right now with a tool I am developing. Its
4-5 iterations through various parts of the engine code. Each time, it takes
less time and more importantly adds to the quality of the result. It does take
longer, however, I am hoping that the efforts spent now to "set the
application apart" from the rest, will be what consumers go for (Eg Unique
capabilities/performance). In theory. Either that, or I have learnt a big
lesson but I take the view that the outcome does not have to be perfect, only
better than the rest. Then I will stop iterating. This application is not
really the kind I could sit down and design as I am learning and experimenting
on the way. Its painful. But with pain, comes growth. In theory.

------
gryphel
If anyone is interested, I ported this source code to compile in MPW Pascal.
The modified source and binary are available from:
[http://www.gryphel.com/c/sw/general/macpaint/index.html](http://www.gryphel.com/c/sw/general/macpaint/index.html)

------
GeekyBear
Also from the Computer History Museum, a PDF transcript of an interview with
Bill Atkinson and Andy Hertzfeld discussing the creation of MacPaint and early
Apple and Macintosh lore.

[http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/201...](http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2013/05/102658007-05-01-acc.pdf)

------
peterwwillis
Artist Kevin Smith
([http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/867.html](http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/867.html))
acquired a "Fat Mac" ([https://www.cultofmac.com/500730/apple-history-fat-mac-
quadr...](https://www.cultofmac.com/500730/apple-history-fat-mac-quadruples-
memory/)) to produce some of the first digital paintings. Here are some of his
prints currently in the exhibit above:
[https://imgur.com/a/A5dD2](https://imgur.com/a/A5dD2)

More MacPaint artists here:
[http://macpaint.org/historical_gallery.html](http://macpaint.org/historical_gallery.html)

~~~
Eric_WVGG
There are a couple of contemporary artists who are doing some interesting work
with this whole "Mac classic style."

[http://unomoralez.com](http://unomoralez.com)
[https://vimeo.com/mattisdovier](https://vimeo.com/mattisdovier)

------
duskwuff
I'm still holding out hope that, at some point, Apple will release the source
code to one or more versions of Classic Mac OS. The commercial value has got
to be minimal -- it's been off the market since ~2002, and it's all for a
platform that no longer exists -- and there's some very interesting stuff in
there, like the nanokernel and 68k JIT, or Macintalk, or AOCE...

~~~
memsom
There was some shady Classic Mac OS Source floating about on a Hotline server
I used to have access to. I looked at it, but I think it was almost totally in
68000 assembler, so it had minimal use/interest to me at the time.

~~~
duskwuff
You're probably thinking of the System 7.1 leak. I've seen that -- it's
interesting, but woefully incomplete.

------
dang
Discussed in 2011:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2285569](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2285569).

------
tniemi
Also mentioned in Folklore:
[https://www.folklore.org/ProjectView.py?project=Macintosh&to...](https://www.folklore.org/ProjectView.py?project=Macintosh&topic=QuickDraw)

------
lonk
The article is written in almost white on a white background. Very web 2.0.
Not safe for eyes.

~~~
grzm
On my browser the text is #5B5B5B on white. Perhaps not dark enough for you,
but I personally didn't find it difficult to read. I'm not sure what's going
on with your browser that it's white on white.

------
rgovostes
The link should be updated to point to the Computer History Museum instead of
this unofficial GitHub "mirror":
[http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/macpaint-and-
quickdraw-...](http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/macpaint-and-quickdraw-
source-code/)

~~~
dang
OK, we changed the URL to that from
[https://github.com/gotchacode/macpaint](https://github.com/gotchacode/macpaint).

------
IncRnd
From the comments on the page: "Well I am a developer too and i respect and
understand the joy and excitement of writing amazing code that can create
wonderful experiences for people and adds real value to the hardware. But
today most developers are like copy paste baboons who love stealing code and
ideas."

