I think you meant Java Applets instead of Compile once run everywhere.

Well,for my part it's more: don't even compile, just run somewhere else.

Java is cool.

I am a proof of that.

I write in word to correct my text when I use my pc. Additionally, it's a better editor than the one supplied for commenting...

Wow, I initially thought that the first dialog box was a screencap of a "real" one...

Impressive!

Thank you :) A real labor of love [0] for me.

[0]: https://notes.jordanscales.com/98-css-reflections

Pixel-aligned non-antialiased interfaces make it so much easier to reproduce. Good luck emulating current-gen desktop OS rendering on a different software and hardware stack...

Easy to criticize, hard to actually build something.

One of the best RTS out there. I go there every night to get my ass kicked once or twice before bed.

I highly recommend it.

And I thought it was just me.

I didn't get my first win until I chose Turtle AI with 40% handicap. After many months of "honing" my skills, I am now about 50/50 against Rush AI on equal standings, but I still have to play larger maps so that there is some lag before they can reach my base.

Just wait until you try playing online. That'll be an interesting experience.. ;-)

I am going to be that guy, but I went full runit for similar reasons.

Give me files for my logs, give me a single place for my service definitions, be simple.

After years of systemd, I have never really "got it", while it took a weekend for runit.

It's not always our choice, corporate world is something else, I know...

9 fingers... Not 10, 9.

I use both my thumbs on the spacebar to assert dominance on every word.

But now I'm curious, which thumb do most people use on a keyboard?

My spacebar(s) are very smooth and shiny on the right compared to left.

By the same measure, looks like I use my left thumb by far the most. I'm left-handed.

I started on an Amiga without a compiler, and I've learned my first programming language there.

Then I got my first PC with Windows, and I learned a shit ton on it.

I am sure you had little effort to get your games, didn't you?

If you wanted to code, you would have done the same effort to get what you needed.

Magazines were a thing too...

Cheap excuses, the OS is irrelevant here.

I lived in bumfuck nowhere where there were basically no developers (if you knew how to reinstall Windows you were called "a genius kid"), no computer magazines, and access to the internet was available through dial-up for an hour or two in the middle of the night a couple of times per month because it was:

1) very slow — my modem was never able to achieve more than 2.5-3 KB/s, and

2) pretty expensive given our measly salaries.

I also didn't speak English at all. I first got access to a programming environment at 16, at an age where my Western peers were starting to write operating systems: it was a copy of "pirated" Delphi that came by pure chance. The first couple of years I was making shit that wouldn't impress anybody because there was nothing to learn from besides the standard library, which would probably be achievable by a computer science version of Ramanujan, but not by some random dude like myself.

Please remember about the rest of the world before accusing others of making "cheap excuses". Not every person on this planet lived or lives in the middle of Manhattan; this may very well include GP.

Not everyone had finances for magazines, not everyone lives in a densely populated area where you can get access to information, including libraries.

Many HN readers frequently forget they lived in the perfect storm to allow their skills to grow.

Indeed, as a kid of 10, I remember learning C/C++ thanks to DJGPP, a DOS port of GCC, being free software. I didn't have any money to buy a commercial compiler, though I never asked my parents. I wasn't sure how to frame the question, I guess. Well, regardless, getting your hands on a commercial compiler wasn't that difficult in the late 90s/early 00s. Soon after though small non-commercial indie games kinda died out and everyone was using DirectX using MSVC on Windows, until SDL came out.

SDL appeared in late 90s / early 00s, that's pretty much when it became popular (e.g. most early Loki Linux game ports from used SDL).

As far as compilers, Borland shipped a free version of their C++ Builder 5.5 compiler right around that time, too, so on Windows we had that in addition to MinGW.

Thank you sharing your invaluable knowledge with such a precise and accurate language. It demonstrates clearly your deep understanding of the subject.

Obviously! ...

Wayland WM "River" is great too.