There are some big changes afoot for me, which you may have already heard announced elsewhere. I am no longer working for REAL Software. With the economic situation in the US being what it is, it was difficult for RS to justify having a full-time compiler writer and engineering manager. Those positions have been consolidated into other people's daily duties within the company, and consequently, Nathan and I were laid off.
I've had a wonderful run of almost seven years with REAL Software, and have thoroughly enjoyed all of it. I was blessed to work with an excellent team of engineers which made my day to day work a blast. I was also lucky in that I've had a ton of customer interaction over the years, and gotten to see all of the creative and awesome ways you used a product I helped to create!
So to both RS employees and RB users alike, thank you for all of the fantastic times over the years!
If you, or someone you know, are looking for a top-notch Win32 programmer, UI designer, compiler writer or RB programmer, please contact me at aaron@aaronballman.com. I am looking for full-time employment, but in the interim will be happy to consider contract work. Resumes and references are available upon request, but can mostly be viewed via my LinkedIn profile.
Sucks dude. Good luck. You should apply at MSFT, the C++ team :)
thanks for your help in the past. Good luck in finding something ya like to do.
Shawn
Aaron, I just wanted to say thanks for everything. You've been a huge asset for REAL, and I've always appreciated your help, whether over email, through the blog, over IM, or at REAL World. You have a great ability to explain things in understandable terms (as evidenced by this blog). Sorry to see you leaving REAL. Sad day for the RB community.
Aaron, it is a very disappointing day indeed. I had been a REALbasic user since version 1.0 (back in 1998 I think). This past fall was the first time I decided not to purchase anymore updates. I have grown skeptical of REAL Software. My mantra when evaluating a company is "good companies don't lose good people". You, sir, are a "good people". I sincerely wish I could be of some assistance in helping you secure new employment. I do hope you will continue sharing your programming insights through this blog.
I'm disheartened and disappointed.
Wow, that's a disturbing surprise. Not that I agreed with your views too often, nontheless you were still a necessary part of the dev team at RS. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours!
Thank you for your efforts. You will be missed.
However, I look forward to hearing what wonderful new opportunities come you way. Hopefully you can become another asset to the RB community.
:(
:(
Thank you for all of your help through the years! I hope your future efforts allow you to still participate in the community from time to time. I've learned a lot both directly from you and from the concepts you've introduced and talked about.
I have no doubt that you could join up with Mars if you really wanted to. :)
Thank you for all of your help through the years! I hope your future efforts allow you to still participate in the community from time to time. I've learned a lot both directly from you and from the concepts you've introduced and talked about.
I have no doubt that you could join up with Mars if you really wanted to. :)
Thank you Aaron. You will be missed.
Sad news indeed. Hope you will stay in touch with the RB-community. I wish you the best.
Thanks for all the warm wishes, everyone! It's always nice to know you're appreciated. ;-) I do intend to remain in the community both in terms of my blog and personal emails (and the occasional posts to the forums too). So don't be shy! :-)
This is probably the most shocking news I found today.
I sincerely hope you the best, you were a great help for the RB community and your blog was, is, and will be a good read. I'm sure you will find another great job, and I'll still be here reading your ramblings.
I guess I'm not supposed to say this (and you have my permission to remove this post), but RB will never be the same without you. I guess the hope for real multithreading, optimizing compiler and all those things are now officially gone. Bad move for the RS people, IMHO, but I'm sure you'll find something better.
Don't panic, take care and thanks for all the fish!
Thank you for your most excellent work. Opportunities await you and your talents elsewhere for sure.
With every door that closes a new one opens (this is 40+ years of professional life's experience). Take the things you learned and the good times and move on. You did us a tremendous service with Realbasic and are ready for a larger stage. Take care and thanks!
Neal Campbell
WOW, I am so very sorry to hear about this Aaron. I can honestly say, I think that REALbasic will be the worst off for it.
Now on to something positive... I was a contract developer for over 10 years (something that I really loved doing by the way). Every time I left one position, even places that I LOVED working for. I always ended up in a better situation in the long run.
It might not seem like it now, but I'm sure you'll find something that you really enjoy and that provides exciting challenges and growth as a developer.
BEST OF LUCK!
Aaron, this will be a perfect opportunity to take some time off and think about developing your own compiler from scratch. I know you can do it. There's NOTHING like working for yourself.
Aaron,
I'm sorry to see you go. RS is losing its most valuable employee. While I'm sure that they can continue to work on the IDE and the framworks, I'm skeptical that they can implement new language features now. I hope that you bounce back quickly. Please keep in touch.
Scott
We're going to miss you Aaron!
You've been a fantastic asset to the entire REALBasic community. I wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors.
I really enjoyed your posts, and I wish you the best of luck!
Wow Aaron... I just saw the bad news FOR RS! I was afraid that this could happen to RS... loosing you :(
One of the main reasons that I started to use RB (I only use for Win32) it was due to you and your help... and because you were working also at RS.
I'm sure this is a big opportunity for you and you will easily find work/job. You are very professional, you know this stuff like anyone else and you are a GREAT person.
You were/are very valuable for the RB community, and I hope you keep participating... RB without you is not fun!
Best of luck... YOU DESERVE IT!
Thank you Aaron!
Carlos
sad news,
thanks you for all your works on RS et your help on forums !
Now why not create plugins or other for RB Users.
With your skill set, the demand will still remain high, even in this economy. I would say, try contracting, the money is much better and you can pick and choose your work, take time off with family and pursue other interests. I took one year off after my contract ended, best time of my life.
Best wishes
A great loss to RS and the RB community Aaron.
Hope you find a good job soon.
Cheers
Dan Stenning
Aaron i learn a lot for you . You make that I continuous growing my skill in programing (I read all you work in rblibrary and in this blog, perhaps do you have more time and write more :-) ).
I wish you luck.
Sorry for my English.
Country: Argentina
Aaron,
I would like to personally thank you for your assistance and patience in helping me with plugins!
Good luck with future ventures, when one door closes others open!
Thanks for all of your help in the past and I hope you stay involved in the RB community.
Thanks to you, I have understood most of the compromises RS had to do in th erecent versions. However, I have never understood the way how the business is done, starting from taking the business out of all the good distributors and setting up their own offices. I really don't understand the decision of taking out resources of the core project when Cocoa is coming and someone should look at Windows 7. It doesn't look promising.
Anyway, good luck with whatever your new career will be. I'm sure you will have as much of contract work as you can take..
Didn't know how many people had left from REAL since 1.0 released, I have an incomplete list (some of them might be not full-time employees of REAL):
Andrew Barry, Jannice Faber, James Milne, G. Cortis Clark, Joseph J. Strout, John Balestrieri, Lorin Rivers, Damon Law, Like Listrom, Stacie Mayes, Janet Camacho, Gwen Palmer, Jonathan Johnson, David Grogono, Matt Quagliana, Mars Saxman, Mike Bailey, Andrew Bredow, Ivan Lopez... and Aaron and Nathan.
Thanks all of them and the people still working for REAL.