Hacker News: sparky4pro

New comment by sparky4pro in "QBE – Compiler Back End"

sparky4pro — Fri, 08 May 2026 22:07:52 +0000

There are at least 2 Go libraries written in Go, based on QBE. One is used by this project: https://github.com/xplshn/gbc

New comment by sparky4pro in "Diverse organic molecules on Mars revealed by the first SAM TMAH experiment"

sparky4pro — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:01:00 +0000

> This legitimizes future missions/spending on life searching missions to the Martian surface.

How about spending money to get clean drinking water to the whole humanity (and other living creatures) here on earth first?

New comment by sparky4pro in "Diverse organic molecules on Mars revealed by the first SAM TMAH experiment"

sparky4pro — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 13:51:14 +0000

They found molecules on Mars? Great, now we know that Mars is made out of different materials. But we knew that before we sent a lonely Rover over there.

Wake me up if they find ATP (adenosine triphosphate). Without ATP no life.

New comment by sparky4pro in "Meet The Przewalski's Horse: The Last True Wild Horse on Earth"

sparky4pro — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 07:35:13 +0000

These horses have similar markings as the wild Kiger Mustangs in Oregon.

Kiger Mustangs are a distinct, protected population of wild, free-roaming horses found in the Steens Mountain region of southeastern Oregon. They are descendants of early Spanish horses and are known for their dun-colored markings.

New comment by sparky4pro in "Closing this as we are no longer pursuing Swift adoption"

sparky4pro — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 07:18:17 +0000

Swift != GC

New comment by sparky4pro in "Swift is a more convenient Rust (2023)"

sparky4pro — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 21:02:01 +0000

This! Also, for new APIs Apple reduces (or does not provide) Objective-C documentation.

I really tried to love Swift, but in the end I ended up with 1 project using Swift/SwiftUI, and all the other apps I started to write, I rewrote in Zig or Rust, because the Swift compiler kept giving me vague error messages with no hint which Swift file was the culprit or/and which line/column the error was.

YMMV

New comment by sparky4pro in "Vibecoding #2"

sparky4pro — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 17:31:54 +0000

Suppose that when someone is retired, there is more time doing stuff, but time is running out…

If someone is in their 30’ or 40’ planning to work the next 5+ years on a project is no problem, even if it takes 10+ years in the end.

For the ones over 65 or older, it’s a different story…

New comment by sparky4pro in "The C3 Programming Language"

sparky4pro — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 20:02:53 +0000

Xgo

New comment by sparky4pro in "The FreeBSD Foundation's Laptop Support and Usability Project"

sparky4pro — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 16:04:57 +0000

Is Asahi Linux alive?

New comment by sparky4pro in "Gnome is better macOS than macOS"

sparky4pro — Sun, 23 Nov 2025 18:32:11 +0000

If I remember correctly, in old UNIX desktop environments apps still ran after closing the last app window.

New comment by sparky4pro in "Gnome is better macOS than macOS"

sparky4pro — Sun, 23 Nov 2025 18:25:48 +0000

This is not a macOS issue, it’s an app developer issue. If the app developer likes the behavior that the app still runs after closing the last app window, this is how the app will act. Some newer Apple apps close the application when the window is closed.

New comment by sparky4pro in "Gnome is better macOS than macOS"

sparky4pro — Sun, 23 Nov 2025 18:17:59 +0000

To switch the app/window closing behavior… there is an API for that.

New comment by sparky4pro in "Gnome is better macOS than macOS"

sparky4pro — Sun, 23 Nov 2025 17:48:33 +0000

On macOS only the dock can be moved to the side. The application menu (left) and the statusbar menu (right) will always be on top of the screen. Which makes sense to me.

New comment by sparky4pro in "Why is Zig so cool?"

sparky4pro — Sun, 09 Nov 2025 23:46:16 +0000

Good point.

BTW: Your reply made me laugh so hard… I loved it.

Thanks.

New comment by sparky4pro in "Why is Zig so cool?"

sparky4pro — Sun, 09 Nov 2025 03:21:27 +0000

Same can be said about other programming languages. Therefore the comment of yours has zero value…

New comment by sparky4pro in "Show HN: Rift – A tiling window manager for macOS"

sparky4pro — Sun, 12 Oct 2025 21:58:10 +0000

Yep, Loop does all I need and is not in my way.

New comment by sparky4pro in "Systems Programming with Zig"

sparky4pro — Sat, 04 Oct 2025 21:28:32 +0000

Garrison Hinson-Hasty is writing a book about a programming language that is still in flux seems a little bit… hasty. Sorry, couldn’t resist…

New comment by sparky4pro in "Systems Programming with Zig"

sparky4pro — Sat, 04 Oct 2025 21:20:04 +0000

Tried to use Swift outside Xcode and it’s a pain. Especially when writing CLI apps the Swift compiler chocked and says there is an error, mentioning no line number. Good luck with that. Also the Swift tooling outside Xcode is miserable. Even Rust tooling is better than that, and Swift has a multi billion dollar company behind it. What a shame…

New comment by sparky4pro in "LLM Inevitabilism"

sparky4pro — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 18:43:10 +0000

This is a nice article as it triggers “think before you use it” mentality.

However, at the same time, it suggests the idea that rational thinking without any deep seated perception or hidden motivation is possible.

This is not possible.

Therefore, all greedy people in this field will push anything that gives them what they want.

They will never care if what they do or promote will help “mankind” to a long term beneficial direction.

New comment by sparky4pro in "Redesigned Swift.org is now live"

sparky4pro — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 21:01:36 +0000

I’m happy for you and everyone else who has had the same experience as you. I’ve saved my Swift CLI apps, so I might try it again when a new version comes out, hopefully they fixed such behavior.