frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Open Source @Github

fp.

The Duty of a Scholar

https://www.daemonology.net/blog/2026-10-31-The-Duty-of-a-Scholar.html
8•gslin•9m ago•0 comments

Molly (Signal fork) has not been updated since 3 months and is vulnerable

https://piefed.world/post/1503394
249•DeepLogin•8h ago•151 comments

Do the math: How we took over ChatGPT accounts

https://www.parameter.ai/labs/we-found-a-gap-at-openai
264•armcat•8h ago•119 comments

Jepsen: ParticleDB 1.1.4

https://jepsen.io/analyses/particledb-1.1.4
88•aphyr•5h ago•43 comments

I post trained a model on Demoscenes

https://datavorous.com/writing/demoscener/
15•datavorous_•1h ago•7 comments

Casio Watches of the 1980s

https://www.casio.com/us/watches/50th/Heritage/1980s/
142•karagenit•3h ago•65 comments

Redox: Ring Buffers Project Summary

https://www.redox-os.org/news/nlnet-rb-summary/
19•g0xA52A2A•3d ago•2 comments

Noctua Fan Swap on a Calnex Rb/GPS Frequency Reference

https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2026/noctua-fan-swap-calnex-rb-gps-frequency-reference/
12•aray07•2d ago•3 comments

William Nordhaus has died

https://news.yale.edu/2026/10/31/william-nordhaus-nobel-laureate-who-integrated-economics-and-cli...
16•ilreb•1h ago•1 comments

GPT-5.6 Sol can beat Factorio on peaceful mode

https://ryanmadden.net/gpt-56-beats-factorio/
5•ryanmadden•26m ago•0 comments

Shaun Thomas: Burnt Toast

https://www.pgedge.com/blog/burnt-toast
3•hn9zmdcaou•32m ago•0 comments

Simple circuits can create complex behaviors

https://aatishb.com/myriad/lets-build-a-brain/
148•aatish•4d ago•44 comments

Reading and writing are less symmetric than you (probably) think

https://fgiesen.wordpress.com/2015/10/25/reading-and-writing-are-less-symmetric-than-you-probably...
49•luu•3d ago•15 comments

It's the Memory Latency, Stupid

https://pivotlake.io/blog/its-the-memory-latency-stupid/
4•ntur1337•39m ago•0 comments

Switch Lowering in GCC

https://xoranth.net/gcc-switch/
171•signa11•11h ago•33 comments

Serbia just elected the world's brainiest parliament

https://www.science.org/content/article/serbia-just-elected-world-s-brainiest-parliament
708•input_sh•8h ago•406 comments

The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported (2025)

https://dl.acm.org/doi/full/10.1145/3706598.3713778
47•the-mitr•1h ago•31 comments

Digital minimalism

https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2026/10/31/digital_minimalism.html
250•wilbertliu•13h ago•187 comments

Malware uses LLMs to rank victims by how much they're worth

https://blog.talosintelligence.com/appraisal-by-ai-model-driven-victim-prioritization-in-the-volt...
192•khalidkhair•4h ago•99 comments

Show HN: Ghostman – A fast, keyboard-driven TUI API client and webhook inspector

https://github.com/4yk5/Ghostman
25•4yk5•1d ago•18 comments

UK Green party drops longstanding opposition to nuclear power

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/oct/05/green-party-nuclear-power-policy
146•mpweiher•1h ago•109 comments

AI, Lean, and the Future of Formal Verification, with Lean Creator Leo de Moura

https://thedataexchange.media/leo-de-moura-lean-aws/
159•datascientist•2d ago•36 comments

What is a light-day? The milestone Voyager 1 is closing in on

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/voyager-1/voyager-1-what-is-a-light-day/
53•geox•3h ago•24 comments

Show HN: Marelleo, an open-source story box I built for my kids using ESP32

https://zebra.rodeo/en/blog/marelleo/
162•foOg•4d ago•44 comments

Hackers hijack Egypt highway billboard and Malaysian screens to show porn

https://www.cairoreport.org/p/egypt-brazil-iraq-billboard-hack
8•entryleveljobsc•1h ago•5 comments

The $6.3B Binance hack was pulled off in just 20 minutes

https://www.wired.com/story/the-dollar63-billion-binance-hack-was-pulled-off-in-just-20-minutes/
560•domhudson•1d ago•400 comments

Copyright Office is restoring copyright to something you have to work to get

https://pluralistic.net/2026/10/31/burn-berne/#unvictored
22•beardyw•2h ago•16 comments

Hunting 'Zombie Accounts' in Active Directory

https://www.fabian.fyi/2026/10/zombie-hunt.html
27•optimiz•1d ago•2 comments

My favourite PowerMac is a Nintendo Wii

https://virtuallyfun.com/2026/10/29/my-favourite-powermac-is-a-nintendo-wii/
363•DHowett•1d ago•108 comments

Prospero: A new coding harness for a more civilized age

https://nullprogram.com/blog/2026/10/31/
158•fovc•7h ago•109 comments
Open in hackernews

Extending a Language – Writing Powerful Macros in Scheme

https://mnieper.github.io/scheme-macros/README.html
92•textread•1y ago

Comments

neilv•1y ago
A few formatting changes might make this advanced example easier to understand:

    (define-syntax trace-let
      (syntax-rules ()
        [(trace-let name ([var expr] ...) body1 ... body2)
         (let f ([depth 0] [var expr] ...)
           (define name
             (lambda (var ...)
               (f (+ depth 1) var ...)))
           (indent depth)
           (display "(")
           (display 'name)
           (begin
             (display " ")
             (display var))
           ...
           (display ")")
           (newline)
           (call-with-values
               (lambda ()
                 body1 ... body2)
             (lambda val*
               (indent depth)
               (fold-left
                (lambda (sep val)
                  (display sep)
                  (display val)
                  " ")
                "" val*)
               (newline)
               (apply values val*))))]))
The biggest one is to make the rule template pattern variables all-uppercase. I also made a few other tweaks, including using indentation a little more, and naming the named-`let` variable as "loop" (I usually name it `loop` or prefix the name with `loop-` if there's more than one):

    (define-syntax trace-let
      (syntax-rules ()
        ((trace-let NAME ((VAR EXPR) ...) BODY1 ... BODY2)
         (let loop ((depth 0)
                    (VAR   EXPR) ...)
           (define NAME
             (lambda (VAR ...)
               (loop (+ depth 1) VAR ...)))
           (indent depth)
           (display "(")
           (display (quote NAME))
           (begin (display " ")
                  (display VAR)) ...
           (display ")")
           (newline)
           (call-with-values (lambda ()
                               BODY1 ... BODY2)
             (lambda val*
               (indent depth)
               (fold-left (lambda (sep val)
                            (display sep)
                            (display val)
                            " ")
                          ""
                          val*)
               (newline)
               (apply values val*)))))))
Incidentally, all-uppercase Scheme pattern variables is one of the all-time best uses of all-uppercase in any language. Second only to all-uppercase for the C preprocessor, where a preprocessor macro can introduce almost arbitrary text. Using all-uppercase for constants in some language that has constants, however, is an abomination.

(My suspicion of why Java did all-caps is that they were developing a language for embedded systems developers who were currently using C and C++, and they wanted to make it superficially look similar, even though it was an entirely different language. And then, ironically, the language ended up being used mostly by the analogue of a very different developer of the time: corporate internal information systems developers, who, as a field, didn't use anything like C. It's too late to save Java, but to all other language and API developers, please stop the insanity of all-caps constants, enum values, etc. It's not the most important thing that needs to jump out from the code above all other things.)

Y_Y•1y ago
FWIW, all-caps makes this look much worse to me. I understand that people like things like Hungarian notation, arrows over vector names, and shouting Common Lisp symbols. I understand the argument that it can make reading easier. I just can't appreciate that benefit, and it seems to me an ugly hack which obscures the abstract and general symbolic manipulation going on.

This is all highly subjective of course, de gustibus non disputandem.

neilv•1y ago
You mean aesthetically, in that interspersed all-caps makes the code visually less soothingly sensual?

I can sympathize, but let me make a non-aesthetic argument...

In large blocks of code, with all-caps, you can see at a glance where all the template substitutions are happening, and also instantly know as you're reading code what are variables and what are template substitutions?

I'm asking because one of my realizations in recent years is that not everyone reads or sees code the same way.

For example, maybe some people are stronger "visual" and some people are stronger "verbal".

For another example of a different in how people perceive and think, some people can visualize an object in their mind almost as if they're looking at it, but other people can only know and describe what it looks like without bringing a visual of it into their head.

With the benefit of the all-caps, I can glance at this and immediately see much of the structure of the template. Without all-caps, I'd have to work harder to find all the pattern variables, and the structure would be obscured.

For a bit kludgy practical matter, as I'm quickly looking at pieces of code in a template, with all-caps, I can look at a fragment of code in isolation and know what are and aren't pattern variables. Without that, I have to go read the top of the template clause (and read through any syntactic scopes of `let-syntax`) and get that in my head, until I get to the fragment of code I originally wanted to look at.

IDE support can make this unnecessary, with a hypothetical great IDE, with familiar syntax coloring. But still, if there is one thing that all-caps should be reserved for, it's something like this.

With all-caps, your code can be sensual, and the jolting all-caps bits are look out, potentially arbitrary code gets pasted into here.

mnemenaut•1y ago
https://github.com/rogerturner/scheme-macros/blob/main/examp... shows stepwise development of a trace-let [the `(example: (fn arg) => result)` forms are tests - see check-examples library]
Y_Y
•
1y ago
Since you asked, my objection is both aesthetic and semantic, though I was really referring to the semantic part above.

I think you've hit the nail on the head with this visual vs. verbal distinction.

I can add a few clarifying details. I don't use IDEs as much as basic text editors maybe with highlighting, and I try not to rely on any fancy features. It does worry me that the allcaps use you describe is (afaik) not known to the editor or interpreter, so if you make a mistake or the symbol gets out of sync with its meaning (re: pattern variables) you may have a false signal. Finally I'll say that in the end I can't suggest a good way to treat these special variables, and so maybe I don't get it, or tastes like mine would be better served by a different formalism for macros.