frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Ask HN: Which function definition keyword do you prefer, def or fn?

1•winwang•1y ago
I'm curious about what people think of `def` vs `fn`, two short keywords for starting function definitions.

...Or maybe we should subscribe to the church of `df`, haha.

Comments

sitkack•1y ago
def could be for lots of things, fn is for functions. I don't think it matters much as long as you have one. C would have been so much easier to parse. Just copy Zig or Rust.
butlersean•1y ago
def means define, could be used to define all kinds of things

fn isnt a legitimate short form of function

fun doesnt work because of the amusement factor

func is the only alternative we have left

sitkack•1y ago
How about unicode or emojis?

These don't have the full fidelity as hn scrubs emojis

add = (a, b) -> a + b

a, b ⟹ a + b

λ add(a, b): ↪ a + b

johncoltrane•1y ago
"def" is too generic.

"fn" is too cryptic.

"function" is better than the two.

MultifokalHirn•1y ago
Agreed

A reality check on the AI jobs hysteria

https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/05/26/1137855/a-reality-check-on-the-ai-jobs-hysteria/
2•joozio•1m ago•0 comments

Imec presents quantum dot qubit device using High NA EUV lithography

https://www.imec-int.com/en/press/world-first-imec-presents-quantum-dot-qubit-device-using-high-n...
1•u1hcw9nx•1m ago•1 comments

Show HN: The Structural Operating System for the AI Era

https://typerion.io
1•Techman92•2m ago•0 comments

FinOps for AI: Track What Your Code Costs per Commit

https://mooracle.io/blog/finops-ai-planning-poker/
1•theanonymousone•3m ago•0 comments

Egypt's Great Pyramid is also a great earthquake dampener

https://www.science.org/content/article/egypt-s-great-pyramid-also-great-earthquake-dampener
1•tzury•3m ago•0 comments

Harness, Scaffold, and the AI Agent Terms Worth Getting Right

https://huggingface.co/blog/agent-glossary
1•sergiopaniego•4m ago•0 comments

Collapse of Personal Computing – Investigation into the Destruction of Ownership [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyQwAhppWj8
1•alecco•5m ago•0 comments

What if every input, search and list was predictive?

https://aito.ai/blog/the-predictive-application/
1•arauhala•5m ago•0 comments

Basecamp Five

https://world.hey.com/dhh/basecamp-five-8fcfd2ef
3•software_writer•8m ago•0 comments

Daily Murder: a daily whodunit puzzle solved by logic on an elimination grid

https://dailymurder.com
1•KeepComputing•8m ago•0 comments

My Favorite Fable

https://sive.rs/horses
1•Michelangelo11•9m ago•0 comments

Skill to Income Mapping Engine

https://www.tooldocket.com/2026/05/skill-to-income-calculator.html
1•stoicstoic•9m ago•0 comments

Study: AI is helping to develop new gallium-based semiconductor

https://news.flinders.edu.au/blog/2026/05/26/ai-speeds-up-discovery-of-next-gen-computer-chips-an...
1•giuliomagnifico•9m ago•0 comments

Netherlands blocks U.S. takeover of DigiD operator Solvinity

https://nltimes.nl/2026/05/26/netherlands-blocks-us-takeover-digid-operator-solvinity-security-co...
3•nemoniac•11m ago•0 comments

IT Doesn't Matter [pdf]

https://www.classes.cs.uchicago.edu/archive/2014/fall/51210-1/required.reading/ITDoesntMatter.pdf
1•harlequinetcie•17m ago•1 comments

DBase is back, sort-of... Error: database not found

https://delphinightmares.substack.com/p/dbase-is-back-sort-of
1•deeaceofbase•20m ago•1 comments

Show HN: High-performance parallel save/load for large NumPy

https://github.com/NoteDance/parallel-saver
1•NoteDance•20m ago•0 comments

Steve Jobs MIT Sloan Distinguished Speaker Series (1992)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk-9Fd2mEnI
1•downbad_•24m ago•0 comments

"Peak Civilization": The Fall of the Roman Empire (2009)

http://theoildrum.com/node/5528
1•downbad_•25m ago•0 comments

China vs. Taiwan: The Geography of an Unfinished War

https://jstribune.com/china-vs-taiwan-the-geography-of-an-unfinished-war/
2•bryanrasmussen•26m ago•0 comments

The AI bubble isn't like the internet bubble

https://pluralistic.net/2026/05/26/the-ai-will-continue/#until-morale-improves
8•doener•28m ago•1 comments

Sparse Autoencoders Reveal Cortical Brain-LLM Semantic Mapping

https://letsdatascience.com/news/sparse-autoencoders-reveal-cortical-brain-llm-semantic-mappi-bc5...
2•bryanrasmussen•30m ago•0 comments

BBC program on wave-powered boats [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWpxtfmpVD4
1•msuniverse2026•30m ago•0 comments

Microsoft and Uber Are Running into an AI Cost Problem

https://firethering.com/microsoft-uber-ai-coding-tools-more-expensive-than-human-workers/
5•steveharing1•32m ago•4 comments

StyloBot- Open Source self hosted behavioural bot protection

https://stylobot.net
1•scottgal•34m ago•0 comments

Benchmarking Vortex File Format vs. Parquet, CSV vs. DuckDB, Polars, Datafusion

https://dataengineeringcentral.substack.com/p/benchmarking-vortex-file-format-vs
2•eigenBasis•35m ago•0 comments

Raft Consensus with a Minority of Nodes

https://padhye.org/raft-minority/
1•moarbugs•35m ago•0 comments

Delta Brain Sync · Streamlit

https://delta-brain-sync-k99vym7mbyebesrfdl84sm.streamlit.app
1•TELEFOXX•36m ago•0 comments

Solar, wind and batteries push down electricity bills for homes and business

https://reneweconomy.com.au/solar-wind-and-batteries-push-down-electricity-bills-for-homes-and-bu...
3•doener•36m ago•0 comments

EU plans to fine Google high triple-digit million euro sum, Handelsblatt reports

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-plans-fine-google-high-triple-digit-million-euro-sum-hand...
2•LelouBil•36m ago•0 comments