Hacker News: nhatcher

New comment by nhatcher in "Ask HN: European Tech Alternatives?"

nhatcher — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 21:05:08 +0000

Thanks, fixed.

New comment by nhatcher in "Ask HN: European Tech Alternatives?"

nhatcher — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 19:46:22 +0000

Wrong thread?

New comment by nhatcher in "Ask HN: European Tech Alternatives?"

nhatcher — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 19:32:42 +0000

I am working on IronCalc[1]. A spreadsheet engine. We are not an alternative yet. As it is not a finished product. But, if we are successful, we should be a good alternative to traditional spreadsheet software.

[1] https://www.ironcalc.com

Atemis II Launch

nhatcher — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 07:09:07 +0000

Article URL: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Watch_live_Artemis_II_launch

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47597811

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

New comment by nhatcher in "VisiCalc Reconstructed"

nhatcher — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 22:44:42 +0000

It's a bit low on my priority list, but I'm working on that!

https://github.com/ironcalc/TironCalc

New comment by nhatcher in "Gerd Faltings, who proved the Mordell conjecture, wins the Abel Prize"

nhatcher — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 23:49:17 +0000

Oh wow! I wouldn't have expected this so many years later. Mordel's conjecture implies asva special case that for all n>=4 there are only a finite number of solutions to Fermat's equations with relative prime numbers. Brings me back!

Most editors at math journal resign over multiple reviews

nhatcher — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 11:50:44 +0000

Article URL: https://retractionwatch.com/2026/03/17/communications-in-algebra-taylor-francis-editors-mass-resignation/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47424513

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by nhatcher in "Lies I was told about collaborative editing, Part 2: Why we don't use Yjs"

nhatcher — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 22:57:54 +0000

Interesting! I am building a spreadsheet and the next few months will be building the collaborative side of it. I think many of the things that work for text don't necessarily translate for spreadsheets.

New comment by nhatcher in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)"

nhatcher — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 13:30:26 +0000

I think charts is one of those few things I won't implement from scratch, as there are already fantastic libraries out there:

https://github.com/ironcalc/IronCalc/issues/348

We will start working on it by July according to the plan. (This will add a lot if value to the project BTW)

New comment by nhatcher in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)"

nhatcher — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 13:00:23 +0000

The "engine" is the computational part of it. And it is completely separted from the UI. You can use it from Rust, Python, nodejs or from the browser and eventually from a destop app.

The important thing is that is all those cases the engine is the same. I

New comment by nhatcher in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)"

nhatcher — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 09:05:29 +0000

Answered to a sibling comment. NLnet and HORIZON.

NLnet is just amazing and can keep you going if you are a student or have some extra sources of income

HORIZON is a huge grant but fairly hard to obtain. Generally related to reasearch grants in academia

New comment by nhatcher in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)"

nhatcher — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 09:03:31 +0000

First we got a grant from the NLnet[1], which I highly recommend as a first step of any project. Single best thing I could have done. That wasn't enough money for me to quit my job. Also I didn't have any _evidence_ that IronCalc was a good idea or that there was a market for it. Then evidence started pouring and I kept working. I started talking to different folks, lots of people many of those were contacts through the NLnet. Then the folks from NextGraph[2] approached us and asked, "Hey do you want to be part of this consortium [3]?". Eventually we got a HORIZON grant after a lot of sweat and paperwork, but NextGraph took the brunt of it.

As you see there is a huge component of sheer luck

[1]: https://nlnet.nl/project/IronCalc/ [2]: https://nextgraph.org/ [3]: https://elfaconsortium.eu/

New comment by nhatcher in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)"

nhatcher — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 08:24:12 +0000

Well, I just jumped full time on IronCalc[1] a fully open source, light and fast spreadsheet engine designed and build from the ground up.

I have been working on it as side project for over two years and now, with funding from the EU for the next 2.5 years, I hope I can make of it a real product for everyone to use that can compete with the likes of Excel and Googl;e Sheets.

I can oly say, I am overly, off the Moon excited

[1]: https://www.ironcalc.com

Solving the Good Will Hunting Problem

nhatcher — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 19:18:25 +0000

Article URL: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-mathematicians-hate-good-will-hunting/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47209741

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

New comment by nhatcher in "Six Math Essentials"

nhatcher — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 07:08:49 +0000

Elliptic Tales, but maybe it is because I read it first

New comment by nhatcher in "Six Math Essentials"

nhatcher — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 22:31:31 +0000

I'm sure it's a great book :).

I find good popular books on higher mathematics difficult to come by. A nice exception is the trilogy written by Avner Ash and Robert Groß:

Elliptic Tales, Fearless Symmetry and Summing it up (in my order of preference)

New comment by nhatcher in "LibreOffice blasts OnlyOffice for working with Microsoft to lock users in"

nhatcher — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 14:27:02 +0000

Thanks for the mention! That's indeed the plan

New comment by nhatcher in "France's homegrown open source online office suite"

nhatcher — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 16:37:45 +0000

Hi! Congratulations to you and Yousef. And I am lucky enough to be in a position from learning from both of you.

Anyone think what they might about La Suite, but blocknote is a solid product!

New comment by nhatcher in "Ask HN: Is there anyone here who still uses slide rules?"

nhatcher — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:52:09 +0000

Related (60 comments, How slide rules work)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45985196

New comment by nhatcher in "I stopped following the news"

nhatcher — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 09:20:07 +0000

Aaron Swartz has a nice blog post about it[1].

It's been discussed several times on HN[2]. I had periods I go through without news. It's been harder to do that lately.

[1]: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews

[2]: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=i+hate+the+news