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•8mo 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•8mo 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•8mo 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•8mo 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•8mo ago
"def" is too generic.

"fn" is too cryptic.

"function" is better than the two.

MultifokalHirn•8mo ago
Agreed

Show HN: I built a 220-lesson programming academy using only Claude Code

https://academy.thunderson.dev
1•eyrockscript•2m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Nudge – Inject rules into agent context

https://github.com/attunehq/nudge
3•ilikebits•3m ago•0 comments

OpenAI has acquired the health-care technology startup Torch

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/12/open-ai-torch-health-care-technology.html
1•shelfchair•7m ago•0 comments

Google removes AI health summaries after investigation finds dangerous flaws

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/google-removes-some-ai-health-summaries-after-investigation-fi...
2•barishnamazov•7m ago•0 comments

Non-Essential French Embassy Staff Have Left Iran

https://www.barrons.com/news/non-essential-french-embassy-staff-have-left-iran-sources-d84d1f51
6•mhb•10m ago•0 comments

A deep dive on agent sandboxes

https://pierce.dev/notes/a-deep-dive-on-agent-sandboxes
1•icyfox•10m ago•0 comments

Republican introduces bill seeking to make Greenland 51st state

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5685118-fine-introduces-greenland-bill/
3•zqna•16m ago•2 comments

The "Bermuda Triangle" and the Growing Risk in the Insurance Markets

https://natlawreview.com/article/bermuda-triangle-and-growing-risk-insurance-markets
1•petethomas•19m ago•0 comments

GoFundMe Ignores Rules Hosting Legal Fund for ICE Agent Who Killed Renee Good

https://www.wired.com/story/gofundme-ice-jonathan-ross-renee-good-fundraiser/
6•cdrnsf•20m ago•1 comments

Map Your API Landscape to Prevent Agentic AI Disaster

https://thenewstack.io/map-your-api-landscape-to-prevent-agentic-ai-disaster/
2•chhum•21m ago•0 comments

GitHub not showing that apps "act on your behalf" when only logging in

https://github.blog/changelog/2026-01-12-selectively-showing-act-on-your-behalf-warning-for-githu...
2•gregsadetsky•23m ago•0 comments

YAML? That's Norway Problem

https://lab174.com/blog/202601-yaml-norway/
1•thes1lv3r•23m ago•0 comments

China Just Built Its Own Time System for the Moon

https://gizmodo.com/china-just-built-its-own-time-system-for-the-moon-2000708991
1•hunglee2•23m ago•0 comments

Mars's big impact on Earth's climate: How the red planet's pull shapes ice ages

https://phys.org/news/2026-01-tiny-mars-big-impact-earth.html
1•bikenaga•26m ago•1 comments

Ask HN: Speculate About a Hypothetical Cyber Exploit That Would Leverage AI

2•burnerToBetOut•27m ago•0 comments

Data-Dividend Calculator

https://delightful-maamoul-98e039.netlify.app
1•KillswitchAI•27m ago•0 comments

I built an ingestion engine because I hate mundane tasks

2•scannyai•28m ago•0 comments

Dialectics for Artificial Intelligence

https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.17373
1•xiaoniu•28m ago•0 comments

Even Linus Torvalds is vibe coding now

https://www.zdnet.com/article/linus-torvalds-vibe-coding-ai/
1•CrankyBear•28m ago•1 comments

Do you know how much money social apps make from your time

https://www.urtheproduct.com
4•ClipNoteBook•30m ago•2 comments

Danish dev delights kid by turning floppy drive into easy TV remote

https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/12/danish_dev_floppy_drive_remote/
1•defrost•31m ago•2 comments

Transactional AI: Saga Pattern for Reliable AI Agent Workflows (v0.2)

https://github.com/Grafikui/Transactional-ai
2•grafikui•31m ago•1 comments

Wine 11.0 Planned for Release Tomorrow with NTSync Support, Better WoW64

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Wine-11.0-Tomorrow
2•mikece•31m ago•0 comments

99% of Heart Attacks and Strokes Linked to 4 Risk Factors

https://www.sciencealert.com/huge-study-links-99-of-heart-attacks-and-strokes-with-4-risk-factors
2•Gaishan•32m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Are you using agents for refactorings?

1•suralind•33m ago•0 comments

Green Corn Ceremony

https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/green-corn-ceremony/
1•foster_nyman•33m ago•0 comments

Climate misinformation is threatening Canada's national security

https://thenarwhal.ca/climate-misinformation-national-security/
3•Teever•38m ago•0 comments

Workflow Description Language (WDL) 1.3

https://openwdl.org/wdl/bioinformatics/workflows/announcing-wdl-1-3-0/
1•azhenley•40m ago•0 comments

What's on HTTP?

https://whatsonhttp.com/
1•elixx•42m ago•0 comments

Seniority Is Clarity Not Cleverness

https://dontbreakprod.com/posts/seniority-is-clarity-not-cleverness
3•dorkrawk•44m ago•1 comments