Stone Tools
stonetools.ghost.io · Personal blog · on HN since 2025
Writes hands-on retrospectives of classic productivity software, such as HyperCard, PageMaker, Deluxe Paint and AppleWorks, on vintage hardware.
What HN saysHN commenters share it as a growing body of retro software work. One admires the Lotus 1-2-3 screenshot for its information density and keyboard navigation.
19HN people shared it
4linked it in comments
31stories submitted
298story points
3 months agolast shared
2025people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1HyperCard on the Macintosh3 people · 37 points · first shared 2025 · 4 comments on HN
- 2Aldus PageMaker on the Apple Macintosh3 people · 6 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
- 3Deluxe Paint on the Commodore Amiga2 people · 96 points · first shared 2025 · 29 comments on HN
- 4Electric Pencil: a word processor that worked best with a soldering iron2 people · 13 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 5Stone Tools: Re-Examining Retro Productivity Software2 people · 6 points · first shared 2025 · 2 comments on HN
- 6Exploring retro productivity software: Visual Basic on Windows 3.12 people · 6 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
- 7Scala Multimedia on the Commodore Amiga2 people · 3 points · first shared 2026 · 2 comments on HN
- 8AppleWorks on the Apple II2 people · 3 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
- 9Building a rain predictor on a C64 with 1985's "XPER," expert system software2 people · 2 points · first shared 2026 · 1 comments on HN
- 10Lotus 1-2-3 on the PC with DOS2 people · 2 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
- 11PipeDream on the Acorn Archimedes2 people · 2 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
- 12VisiCalc on the Apple II1 people · 108 points · first shared 2025 · 49 comments on HN
- 13Bank Street Writer on the Apple II1 people · 4 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 14"Stone Tools"1 people · 3 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 15CAD-3D on the Atari ST1 people · 2 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
ChristopherDrum · 2025-12-15
I shared this last month, and it seemed to resonate with people, so I'll share again and maybe new eyeballs will see it this time. I'm continuing to build a body of work on my retro productivity software blog, Stone Tools.
https://stonetools.ghost.io
Previous articles which resonated with HN were on Deluxe Paint and VisiCalc. The latest post, "HyperCard on the Macintosh," seems to be making the HN rounds currently. Bret Victor himself chimed in on the HyperCard article over on Mastodon, filling in some nice historical footnotes. https://posts.dynamic.land/@bret/115716576717006637
Unlike many (most?) other retrocomputing explorations, I specifically do not look at games nor do I tie myself to any particular machine, though I'm focused on the 1977 - 1995 period. I spend a minimum of two weeks with each productivity title, trying to learn it, building things with it, and generally trying to understand its approach to solving problems. I'd characterize my writing tone as casual, conversational, and decidedly light-hearted.
Each piece of software (so far, knock on wood) gets me thinking about some other aspect of related computing history, so I explore that as a tangent. With the Superbase article, I talked about "the paperless office." With the VisiCalc article I considered its impact on less obvious industries, notably hog farming.
I hope the passion and effort I put into the articles comes through. If you're interested in computing history beyond just the games I think…
leoc · 2026-03-31
A recent blog post from Christoper Drum on running Lotus 1-2-3 on MS-DOS in a 286 emulator https://stonetools.ghost.io/lotus123-dos/ .
hliyan · 2026-03-10
I keep staring at this image, hoping we could go back: https://stonetools.ghost.io/content/images/2026/02/123_001.png
Information density, no decorative UI elements distracting you from the content, and keyboard navigability.
tonyedgecombe · 2025-11-10