BeeRef – a free opens-source simple reference image viewer | Hacker News Reader

BeeRef – a free opens-source simple reference image viewer

beeref.org

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BeeRef is an alternative clone of proprietary PureRef.[0]

Sadly, both PureRef and BeeRef actually are unmaintained.

But for BeeRef there is at least one active fork[1] that still is maintained.[2,3]

[0] https://alternativeto.net/software/beeref/

[1] https://github.com/mini-ninja-64/beeref

[2] https://github.com/rbreu/beeref/issues/62#issuecomment-14476...

[3] https://github.com/rbreu/beeref/issues/61#issuecomment-14490...

I've been using PureRef for years now and it's pretty much done, so I'm not too worried it's not being maintained.

PureRef receives an occasional update every now and then.

Really? There is nothing new in Changelog[0] since PureRef v1.11.1, released in 2020.

[0] https://www.pureref.com/changelog.php?beta=1

If there isn't a long list of valid feature requests, perhaps it's just finished.

Quite awkward to install on NixOS though, given the way PureRef wants to be downloaded.

Here’s a seemingly underserved niche - a cross-platform reference board that works on desktop as well as Android and iOS, and syncs your boards across devices.

Applications should arguably form a swarm over a PAN and use an OT/CRDT to be kept in sync with each other. The device boundary needs to disappear completely.

> The device boundary needs to disappear completely.

and so will your data, sooner or later. In the clouds /s

No, it will exist in a replicated log on all devices. Just like git. No clouds required.

Something like Miro?

Miro app is something like OpenBoard[0] (which forked from Open-Sankoré 2.0, which was itself based on Uniboard) white board app.[1]

[0] https://github.com/OpenBoard-org/OpenBoard

[1] https://www.tecmint.com/linux-whiteboard-applications/

If you want to remove the need for a image storage server (and the inevitable porn uploads) you could keep it local and just use the file system access api (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/File_System...). This does mean it can't sync but you do get a cross-platform app.

beta.tldraw.com :)

Not a graphic artist--does reference board describe what BeeRef does?

Yes. Basically an infinite canvas to put images (why not videos as well) on.

I made another simple clone[1] of pureref mainly has an exercise to learn X11, however I don't really use it that often.

[1] https://github.com/jmaselbas/sref

Looks nice! I really like lightweight X11-based apps.

Has You seen AzPainter[0] image editor app? Latest AzPainter v3.x has really nice own modern looking X11-based `mlk`[1] widget toolkit and there are many apps built with it.

I maintain(-ed) AzPainter v2.x community repo[2] (for packaging, l10n, wiki), that was based on its older `mlib`[3] toolkit.

[0] https://gitlab.com/azelpg/azpainter

[1] https://gitlab.com/azelpg/azpainter/-/tree/master/mlk

[2] http://azsky2.html.xdomain.jp/soft/index.html

[3] https://github.com/Symbian9/azpainter

[4] https://github.com/Symbian9/azpainter/tree/master/mlib

Not for the same type of graphical work, but a great program for the analysis of scientific image data is ImageJ https://imagej.net/ij/docs/concepts.html

What makes BeeRef unique compared to PureRef? What features does it offer that PureRef doesn't?

Good question, I'm wondering the the other way around.

Not a feature, but an advantage: From what I can tell (I have only used PureRef so far) is that BeeRef has a open file format. For someone with their own image tagging system, it is hard for me to export an image query to PureRef. Having an open file format would make that easy.

> Not a feature, but an advantage: From what I can tell (I have only used PureRef so far) is that BeeRef has a open file format

Guess I should add news here: someone reverse engineered PureRef's file format[0] just few weeks ago[1,2]

[0] https://github.com/FyorUU/PureRef-format

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31lsz3JNtCU

[2] https://www.pureref.com/forum/read.php?2,2912

I saw this post too; I didn't mention it here because it is not an officially documented file format structure. An open and documented format is almost always a better alternative, IMHO.

Yes, I fully agree on this.

Hope, maintainer of BeeRef fork would continue its development.[0]

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34983274#34983291

BeeRef offers you source code, so you would be able to modify and extend it with the knowledge of Python and PyQt6.

PureRef offers you just a blob as is.

I've never used BeeRef or PureRef but if you're on the latest version of OS X and don't need cross platform compatibility, Apple's new app Freeform seems to overlap in functionality with Bee/PureRef quite a bit.

Freeform looks like a white board app, see OpenBoard mentioned above.[0]

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34983274#34987452

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