February 8, 2026
Fold Wars: Browser vs Paper
Rabbit Ear "Origami": programmable origami in the browser (JS)
Paper folding goes full browser: math art that has commenters swooning
TLDR: A JavaScript playground lets you draw and simulate origami using classic folding rules and helper tools. Commenters gush over the clear explanations and fun demos, trade Guinness-worthy folding lore, and debate that only one fold is supported so far and the “counter‑clockwise” Y‑axis rules can be confusing.
Rabbit Ear drops a browser playground where you “program” paper folds, and the comments immediately turn into a lovefest-meets-nerd-off. Fans rave that it’s a beautifully written chapter with clear visuals, showing how you can draw creases, auto-split overlaps, and mark them “mountain” or “valley.” The trickiest parts—like the fold direction being “counter‑clockwise” and the upside‑down web Y‑axis—spark playful grumbling from folks who’ve fought SVGs before.
The killer demo moment: give it points, and the “axioms” hand you the exact crease line like magic. Purists chime in that “real origami discovers creases by folding, not typing numbers,” while developers cheer that this feels like “Photoshop for paper” minus the chaos. Drama? A mini skirmish over the fact there’s only one fold now (the all‑layers valley fold), with optimists chanting “reverse, squash, pedal—coming soon!” and skeptics side‑eyeing feature creep. Meanwhile, commenter lore steals the show: the classic “you can’t fold paper more than 8 times” myth, dunked by a high schooler’s record, becomes the thread’s meme—“this site is the ninth fold.” Overall vibe: math lovers and artists unite, casuals say coolest thing they’ve seen in ages, and everyone’s clicking to try an origami simulator and see paper pop into 3D.
Key Points
- •Rabbit Ear models origami with class-style objects built on a FOLD object and a graph parent class.
- •The origami object supports flatFold, orienting folds counter-clockwise relative to the line’s vector, with an all-layers valley fold currently available.
- •The crease pattern class (ear.cp) maintains planarity, splitting crossings, converting curves to segments, and clipping to paper bounds.
- •Creasing is a two-step process: draw shapes to obtain edges, then set attributes (mountain/valley), with chainable methods and numeric specification.
- •ear.axiom computes crease lines from points and lines, returns multiple solutions, and can filter non-constructible results using polygon or FOLD boundaries.