Hacker News: rlawson

New comment by rlawson in "Blaise – A modern self-hosting zero-legacy Object Pascal compiler targeting QBE"

rlawson — Mon, 18 May 2026 21:03:12 +0000

What a great option to have! All of the good parts of Pascal and non of the baggage

New comment by rlawson in "Stewart Cheifet, creator of The Computer Chronicles, has died"

rlawson — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 13:33:47 +0000

Such a loss! I like many others was captivated by this show. How many future IT industry professionals did Stewart inspire I wonder? Has to be thousands. A great legacy.

Still my favorite show to put in the background while I code.

New comment by rlawson in "Java WebAPI programming is here"

rlawson — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 21:53:29 +0000

Really interesting work!

New comment by rlawson in "South Carolina sees 'alarming' increase in measles cases, with 280 in quarantine"

rlawson — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:50:19 +0000

ah my home state. Many people here just have lost faith in science and the elites and just believe whatever political junk they are watching. Somehow letting your kid get measles is owning the libs. I don't understand it but am content to just watch it play out after many fruitless conversations. Eventually when enough bad things happen they'll hopefully come back to their senses.

New comment by rlawson in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (Nov 2025)"

rlawson — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 14:37:59 +0000

A previewer for Sierra which is an XML based DSL for Java Swing (not by me, but by Greg Brown)

https://github.com/HTTP-RPC/Sierra

I like the ability to declare UIs and the layout manager that Sierra has is the only sane layout manager for Swing I have worked with

New comment by rlawson in "Show HN: Dimension-UI, a desktop alternative to Grafana for time-series analysis"

rlawson — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 11:19:01 +0000

Wow, this UI looks amazing. I'm going to go check the app out but what did you use to get a Swing app to look so nice?

New comment by rlawson in "Javalit – A faster way to build data apps in Java"

rlawson — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 10:50:44 +0000

This is awesome! Headed to try it out now.

I am so happy to see Java catching up to Python in this space. This project, langchain4j, dflib, echarts java, etc

New comment by rlawson in "Ask HN: Anyone else use FreePascal as their low level language?"

rlawson — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 18:10:31 +0000

After so many years as a Java dev my brain thinks in classes so not having classes or exceptions made it a constant struggle. Nothing against Go, more about me.

New comment by rlawson in "Ask HN: Anyone else use FreePascal as their low level language?"

rlawson — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 13:00:54 +0000

Thanks! I will check it out

Ask HN: Anyone else use FreePascal as their low level language?

rlawson — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 11:58:13 +0000

Like most devs I have a couple high level languages (Java/Python/PHP) but my low level language was always C/C++. However after 25 years I was still shooting myself in the foot on the regular. I evaluate Go, Rust and fpc. I'm too dumb for Rust, Go's was close but lack of exceptions and classes made it not for me. Fpc hit the sweet spot. The syntax is a little clunky but I have classes when I need them, exception handling, memory management - both auto and manual and cross platform support. Plus I can fit in my head - unlike C++

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45693719

Points: 69

# Comments: 53

New comment by rlawson in "Basic Dialects, IDEs, and Tutorials"

rlawson — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 12:11:42 +0000

to answer my own question - poking through this list looks like QB64 would do it but also seems they split into 2 projects - QB64 and QB64PE

New comment by rlawson in "Basic Dialects, IDEs, and Tutorials"

rlawson — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 12:07:49 +0000

Yes, I'd really like to use a basic that is open source but cross platform and compiles to executable. I'm not sure such a thing exists tho!

New comment by rlawson in "Show HN: DataStore4J A thread-safe, high-performance key-value data store"

rlawson — Sat, 27 Sep 2025 22:01:18 +0000

Congrats for sticking with it! Taking a look

Ask HN: Is there a coming dev boom for agent tools?

rlawson — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 12:06:33 +0000

I lived through the internet transition where suddenly every company had to have a website, then again the same with mobile apps. I am busy currently writing agent tools to allow llms to have access to my company's internal data/processes. I feel like soon every company will realize they want agent tools specific to their business and much like the previous booms it will go from cutting edge to must have. Thoughts?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44520056

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

New comment by rlawson in "Mac-minivnc – A VNC remote desktop server for vintage Macintosh computers"

rlawson — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 16:52:53 +0000

Love seeing projects like this that make it easier to talk to our retro systems

New comment by rlawson in "Ask HN: Pros and Cons of the Dart Language?"

rlawson — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 20:06:59 +0000

Same, I had zero interest in full native (takes too long) or things like React native (I hate javascript) and Dart/Flutter seems a decent path forward.

New comment by rlawson in "Ask HN: Pros and Cons of the Dart Language?"

rlawson — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 18:19:35 +0000

Thanks! I really do enjoy writing Dart. Hopefully one day it gets cross compile support. Go is nice in that regard but the syntax compared to Dart is not as expressive to me.

Ask HN: Pros and Cons of the Dart Language?

rlawson — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 15:10:05 +0000

I have been working with flutter and have come to really like Dart. I'm primarily a Java dev and to me Dart feels like a lighter Java with better dev experience. I am considering using it in other areas - command line projects, webapps - basically places I would have used Java, Python or Go. What are pros/cons people have found in using Dart outside of the flutter ecosystem?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42635030

Points: 4

# Comments: 4

Ask HN: Is a Dignified Layoff Possible?

rlawson — Sat, 28 Dec 2024 23:37:37 +0000

I was reflecting on the tough job market and feeling bad for all the folks experiencing a layoff - not to mention worrying what may be in my own future given industry trends.

Having gone through a few myself and also having had to lay people off made me wonder yet again how best to minimize the pain.

I remember laying off a senior developer when I was in my early 30's and a new manager. I was up the entire night before worrying and threw up on my way to the office. He was a pro though and not his first rodeo and his quiet dignity always stuck with me. He immediately moved on to the concrete details of severance, insurance, reference, etc.

Hacker News: rlawson

New comment by rlawson in "Blaise – A modern self-hosting zero-legacy Object Pascal compiler targeting QBE"

New comment by rlawson in "Stewart Cheifet, creator of The Computer Chronicles, has died"

New comment by rlawson in "Java WebAPI programming is here"

New comment by rlawson in "South Carolina sees 'alarming' increase in measles cases, with 280 in quarantine"

New comment by rlawson in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (Nov 2025)"

New comment by rlawson in "Show HN: Dimension-UI, a desktop alternative to Grafana for time-series analysis"

New comment by rlawson in "Javalit – A faster way to build data apps in Java"

New comment by rlawson in "Ask HN: Anyone else use FreePascal as their low level language?"

New comment by rlawson in "Ask HN: Anyone else use FreePascal as their low level language?"

Ask HN: Anyone else use FreePascal as their low level language?

New comment by rlawson in "Basic Dialects, IDEs, and Tutorials"

New comment by rlawson in "Basic Dialects, IDEs, and Tutorials"

New comment by rlawson in "Show HN: DataStore4J A thread-safe, high-performance key-value data store"

Ask HN: Is there a coming dev boom for agent tools?

New comment by rlawson in "Mac-minivnc – A VNC remote desktop server for vintage Macintosh computers"

New comment by rlawson in "Ask HN: Pros and Cons of the Dart Language?"

New comment by rlawson in "Ask HN: Pros and Cons of the Dart Language?"

Ask HN: Pros and Cons of the Dart Language?

Ask HN: Is a Dignified Layoff Possible?

New comment by rlawson in "Macintosh Portable"