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Meta's blockbuster trial draws parallels to big tobacco

https://www.economist.com/business/2026/08/18/metas-blockbuster-trial-draws-parallels-to-big-tobacco
106•newsomix9xl•2h ago•73 comments

OpenLogi

https://openlogi.org/en
148•amatheus•2h ago•32 comments

Palomar: A registry of Lean verified mathematics

https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/08/18/palomar-a-registry-of-lean-verified-mathematics/
34•matt_d•2h ago•3 comments

Cerebras CS-4

https://www.cerebras.ai/cs4
153•sunils34•4h ago•106 comments

A 3D fruit fly on macOS desktop powered by the real FlyWire connectome

https://github.com/DenisSergeevitch/desktop-fly
207•phoenix120•7h ago•61 comments

The Amazon tax

https://seths.blog/2026/08/the-amazon-tax/
1050•herbertl•15h ago•602 comments

CUDA Shared Memory Swizzling

https://leimao.github.io/blog/CUDA-Shared-Memory-Swizzling/
22•jxmorris12•5d ago•0 comments

Scientists stunned by children's lung recovery in ultra low emission zone

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1l1r1zne1ro
86•dabinat•4h ago•50 comments

Solo – a .so loader for static Linux binaries

https://github.com/pg83/solo
78•zX41ZdbW•5h ago•78 comments

Supersonic Trebuchet [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co57SfcT-h0
9•CharlesW•4d ago•0 comments

How does IKEA come up with names for its products?

https://www.ikea.com/se/en/customer-service/knowledge/articles/6f564c4d-2ccc-46de-b643-545a3948dc...
273•NaOH•10h ago•159 comments

AI usage patterns in software teams

https://linear.app/data
86•giuliomagnifico•6h ago•43 comments

Claude writing a macOS driver for my obscure HP printer built only for Windows

https://twitter.com/kuberwastaken/status/2089377982536388964
154•porridgeraisin•16h ago•64 comments

Sticky wage norms and the real wage cost of unexpected inflation

https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/BFI_WP_2026-108-1.pdf
332•jplusequalt•3h ago•172 comments

The Vietnam Binh Chau (Chau Tan) Late Tang Wreck

https://www.koh-antique.com/client/tangwreck/tangwreck.html
5•teleforce•3h ago•0 comments

Cursor launches Origin, GitHub alternative

https://cursor.com/changelog/origin-code-hosting
524•tomasreimers•1d ago•388 comments

Turbovec – Google's TurboQuant for vector search in Rust

https://github.com/RyanCodrai/turbovec
220•fittingopposite•10h ago•30 comments

Show HN: Interactive, animated architecture of any HuggingFace models

https://modelmap.cc
59•lizhaoliu•4h ago•7 comments

Finger: the 1971 social network that never died

https://en.andros.dev/blog/54572bc7/finger-the-1971-social-network-that-never-died/
157•andros•21h ago•53 comments

And then the men with guns tell you to do it anyway

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/and-then-the-men-with-guns-tell-you-to-do-it-anyway/
232•_djo_•11h ago•137 comments

Tiny satellite will use the dark side of the Moon as a shield

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/tiny-satellite-will-use-the-dark-side-of-the-moon-to-eavesdro...
22•NordStreamYacht•3h ago•2 comments

Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/memory-prices-climb-500-percent-in-12-months-up-to...
541•haunter•1d ago•446 comments

A 25-year-old video patent just expired, ending a legal headache for Linux

https://www.xda-developers.com/25-year-old-brazilian-video-patent-expired-legal-headache-linux/
128•theanonymousone•3d ago•44 comments

Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

https://quantum5.ca/2026/08/16/fixing-bricked-amd-7040-series-framework-13-laptop-with-20-tools/
393•jp_sc•15h ago•263 comments

Show HN: Automatically detect and patch walking-dead states in Sierra games

https://github.com/katiahayati/lucasartsifier/
12•wkfauna•2h ago•3 comments

That Disgraceful, Disreputable, (Wonderful) Form of Punctuation: The Parenthesis

https://lithub.com/on-that-disgraceful-disreputable-wonderful-form-of-punctuation-the-parenthesis/
17•pseudolus•3h ago•5 comments

Universal health coverage could save $1T and 114k lives a year: study

https://ysph.yale.edu/news-article/universal-health-coverage-could-save-one-trillion-dollars-and-...
788•karakoram•1d ago•843 comments

Being ambitious and being a dad

https://nicholascharriere.com/blog/being-ambitious-and-being-a-dad/
368•nichochar•2d ago•226 comments

The 90-year history of the binoculars bolted to scenic overlooks

https://www.dpreview.com/news/the-90-year-history-of-the-binoculars-bolted-to-scenic-overlooks/
43•sohkamyung•6h ago•7 comments

Beware Management Consultants

https://about.iceland.co.uk/our-story/the-dark-ages/beware-management-consultants/
479•KolmogorovComp•9h ago•125 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.