Decker
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 3 creative coding environments
Free, open-source HyperCard-style tool for interactive decks and small programs; caveats: tiny iOS Safari window, limited font sizing.
Free, open-source HyperCard-style tool for interactive decks and small programs; caveats: tiny iOS Safari window, limited font sizing.
31 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 28
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 90%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 28 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 9.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
HyperCard look and feel
“If you give it a chance, I hope you'll find that Decker is much more than a superficial imitation of HyperCard's look and feel.”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “HyperCard on the Macintosh” “Decker can produce HyperCard-like graphs nicely”
Comment from 24 May 2026 in “I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph” “open source and feels much more "Hypercardy"”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Breadboard – a modern HyperCard for building web apps on the canvas” Looks great on e-ink
“seems like it would have a lot of potential for e-ink devices”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Decker” “It looks way better than most modern interfaces on e-ink too!”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Decker” “it seems kinda perfect for e-ink”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Decker” Fast prototyping, quick to start
“seems to give quick gratification. Looks like an easy and fun way to get started with programming”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Teaching Kids Forth – Anna Liberty” “I always enjoyed the speed with which I could prototype new ideas”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Decker” Dozens of examples to study
“Decker has a similar mechanism for custom brush behavior; here's an interactive tutorial with a variety of examples”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Moss is a pixel canvas where every brush is a tiny program” “Decker comes with dozens of example decks to take apart and study.”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Decker”
Other creative coding environments people recommend
The two most recommended other creative coding environments, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeckerThis page | 28 | 3 | 90% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Processing | 9 | 2 | 82% | 7 | — | — |
| p5.js | 6 | 1 | 86% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
33 of the 40 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“As soon as your eyes adjust to the density, I think this is actually quite legible.”
“Yikes. Stuff of nightmares lol.”
“if you save it as html file, it contains the engine itself and makes no calls to the outside world”
“it is unlike anything I had seen before”
“arguably much more interesting project”
“Decker comes with dozens of example decks to take apart and study.”
“Decker is a living, growing platform!”
“I always enjoyed the speed with which I could prototype new ideas”
“Simple idea, powerful execution”
“seems to give quick gratification. Looks like an easy and fun way to get started with programming”
“It looks way better than most modern interfaces on e-ink too!”
“it seems kinda perfect for e-ink”
“seems like it would have a lot of potential for e-ink devices”
“I think this is a great way to do it.”
“which introduced me to it”
“The self-contained single-file HTML export alone makes this a fantastic medium for web zines and indie games”
“I use personal applications written in Decker on a daily basis.”
“its a complete waste of time”
“Looks awesome! Very oddly super small window for it in iOS safari though.”
“already love the detailed feature set”
“did not have much by way of font size adjustment in text fields”
“There are absolutely zero reasons to write code like this.”
“the Javascript is at least comprehensible”
“nothing about Decker or Lil was specifically designed or tweaked for this use case”
“I can tell I'm gonna have fun with it”
“Decker can produce HyperCard-like graphs nicely”
“has a K-inspired language that is pretty nice”
“interesting and outside the box like Decker and WigglyPaint”
“Decker has a similar mechanism for custom brush behavior; here's an interactive tutorial with a variety of examples”
“open source and feels much more "Hypercardy"”
“This decker stuff is pretty nifty too”
“If you give it a chance, I hope you'll find that Decker is much more than a superficial imitation of HyperCard's look and feel.”
“I just want to say that your work is awesome!”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.