Show HN: Convert a number to an approximated text expression

Post by OJFord » Mon, Apr 27, 2020, 10:08 AM UTC

atorodius wrote: post #30

OJFord wrote: post #22

Does this exist for time numbers? I wish Telegram used such a thing. Someone not seen for 1h59m is 'last seen an hour ago'. Even just showing the actual time would be more helpful IMO - it displays it at the top right underneath (iOS) or very near (Android) the system time anyway, I don't know why it's thought to be a good idea to remove so much information.

I always assumed their system is simply to tell you roughly whether to expect the person to be online soonish. And I would find it too invading to have exact numbers - e.g. in WhatsApp almost everyone I know disables that.

It tells you the exact time anyway, just have to click on it (or otherwise get to the contact's profile). The options for disabling it are to make it visible to everybody/contacts/nobody.

Post by oalae5niMiel7qu » Mon, Apr 27, 2020, 2:22 PM UTC

benibela wrote: post #25

parhamn wrote: post #23

This is the type of thing WASM modules would be perfect for. Theres no reason for this to have so many implementations in so many languages.

That is a frustrating aspect of open-source In the old days you would have a binary shell tool or a dll, and then you could call it from any language. It did not matter in which language the tool was written in.

It has nothing to do with open-source. This project is written in Java (basically), which is proprietary.

It has everything to do with programming languages that don't compile down to linker symbols that can be called with the C calling convention, and the utter failure of Unix philosophy when it comes to shell tools.

Re: Show HN: Convert a number to an approximated text expression

Re: Show HN: Convert a number to an approximated text expression