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I Feel about AI

https://beza1e1.tuxen.de/ai_feelings.html
51•qznc•28m ago•13 comments

Intellectual Fly Is Open (2025)

https://bcantrill.dtrace.org/2025/12/05/your-intellectual-fly-is-open/
233•cyb0rg0•3h ago•131 comments

A/I shuts down – Stay human

https://keepitfree.ai/announcements/a/i-shuts-down-stay-human/
149•captainmuon•54m ago•46 comments

Isar Aerospace reaches orbit and deploys payloads on second flight

https://isaraerospace.com/press/history-for-european-spaceflight-isar-aerospace-reaches-orbit-and...
386•mpweiher•8h ago•109 comments

QBittorrent breaks out of sandbox to commit crimes

https://beige.party/@intransitivelie/117057396732763183
72•mraniki•2h ago•8 comments

Doomscrolling Ourselves to Death

https://www.edwest.co.uk/p/doomscrolling-ourselves-to-death
171•shubhamjain•3h ago•114 comments

Show HN: Kadō – open-source habit tracker, with non-binary habit score, for iOS

https://github.com/scastiel/kado
15•scastiel•53m ago•5 comments

The many mysteries and lessons of the Bayeux tapestry

https://economist.com/interactive/culture/2026/09/03/the-many-mysteries-and-lessons-of-the-bayeux...
28•andsoitis•1h ago•5 comments

M-DISC – DVD/Blu-ray compatible discs that may last up to 1000 years

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC
113•gurjeet•4d ago•44 comments

What is Nueralese and Why is it Bad

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/RCYF2rW8wgusidZk7/what-is-neuralese-and-why-is-it-bad
22•tristanMatthias•2d ago•16 comments

Asahi Linux Now Officially Supports Apple M3 Macs – With Caveats

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Asahi-Linux-Official-M3
54•mdp2021•1h ago•30 comments

Cloud in a Bottle: making self-hosting accessible to everyone

https://cloudinabottle.org/blog/launch-post
523•zplizzi•15h ago•260 comments

Ganon's Mysterious Origins (Revisited)

https://www.thrillingtalesofoldvideogames.com/blog/ganon-name-origin-kamen-rider
5•tobr•18h ago•0 comments

The revolt of the reader

https://bcantrill.dtrace.org/2026/09/05/the-revolt-of-the-reader/
489•chmaynard•17h ago•227 comments

The pencil case model of creativity

https://dub.uu.nl/en/column/pencil-case-model-creativity
28•jruohonen•3h ago•9 comments

Music Theory for Programmers

https://runjs.app/blog/music-theory-for-programmers
250•birdculture•3d ago•149 comments

I'm teaching an introductory 12 week course on Quantum Oracle Engineering

https://shukla.io/quantum-oracle-engineering/
13•BinRoo•2h ago•8 comments

Household Laser Cuts

https://cceckman.com/writing/household-laser-cuts/
28•evakhoury•1d ago•4 comments

IBM Quantum Nighthawk R2

https://www.ibm.com/quantum/blog/nighthawk-r2
49•fuglede_•3d ago•28 comments

The ColorChecker, photography's most important 24 squares, turns 50

https://www.dpreview.com/news/the-colorchecker-photographys-most-important-24-squares-turns-50/
106•sohkamyung•4d ago•19 comments

AMD Based FreeBSD Desktop Reloaded

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2026/09/06/amd-based-freebsd-desktop-reloaded/
92•vermaden•13h ago•9 comments

The Empire of Information

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/data-empire-roopika-risam-information-organize-control-dominate/
26•Petiver•4d ago•7 comments

Fileregister: Tagging and reference layer for your files, in plain text

https://github.com/rhsev/fileregister
11•ingve•5d ago•2 comments

Discovery of a new OpenAI agent message board

https://collusion.wiki/
2231•moultano•2d ago•1566 comments

AI, Tools and Transformation

https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2026/9/3/ai-tools-and-transformation
112•firexcy•13h ago•48 comments

I Changed My License

https://bergie.iki.fi/blog/eupl/
120•jllyhill•4h ago•133 comments

2026 Hugo Awards

https://www.thehugoawards.org/
33•signa11•2h ago•21 comments

Learn Programming with OCaml

https://usr.lmf.cnrs.fr/lpo/
292•elvis70•22h ago•124 comments

'Old Person Smell'

https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/2026/sep/03/old-person-smell
57•bookofjoe•3h ago•28 comments

New all in one 6502 computer (Neo6502kbd)

https://olimex.wordpress.com/2026/09/04/new-open-source-hardware-variant-of-neo6502-now-includes-...
27•AlexeyBrin•3h ago•14 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.