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StreetComplete: Fixing OpenStreetMap, one tiny quest at a time

https://streetcomplete.app/
474•kls0e•6h ago•112 comments

Amazon without the knockoffs

https://knockoff.shopping/
191•plurby•3h ago•126 comments

30papers.com – Ilya's 30 essential ML papers, in a beginner friendly format

https://30papers.com/
122•notmcrowley•2h ago•22 comments

A better way to tie gym shorts (or any drawstring) [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R0Lp86GEBk
338•surprisetalk•6h ago•127 comments

Chat Control 1.0 and 2.0 Explained

https://fightchatcontrol.eu/chat-control-overview
126•gasull•4h ago•16 comments

Astro 7.0

https://astro.build/blog/astro-7/
10•saikatsg•23m ago•1 comments

Jim's TrueType QR Code Font

https://github.com/jimparis/qr-font
45•arantius•2h ago•3 comments

Why we built yet another Postgres connection pooler

https://pgdog.dev/blog/why-yet-another-connection-pooler
45•levkk•3h ago•7 comments

A new runtime for k and q: l

https://lv1.sh/
13•skruger•45m ago•0 comments

MacSurf 1.68 – NetSurf on OS 9 Released

https://github.com/mplsllc/macsurf/releases/tag/v1.86
36•mplsllc•2h ago•3 comments

Chat Control passed first round in EU Parliament

https://www.heise.de/en/news/Showdown-in-Strasbourg-The-unexpected-return-of-Chat-Control-1-0-113...
355•miroljub•3h ago•156 comments

Microsoft fire idTech team at Id software

https://gamefromscratch.com/microsoft-fire-idtech-team-at-id-software/
331•bauc•3h ago•320 comments

9 Mothers (YC P26) Is Hiring in Austin, TX

https://9mothers.com/careers
1•ukd1•6h ago

Computational Balloon Twisting: The Theory of Balloon Polyhedra [pdf]

https://cccg.ca/proceedings/2008/paper34full.pdf
10•luu•5d ago•0 comments

The revenge of the philosophy majors

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/05/business/philosophy-majors-ai-jobs.html
83•benbreen•4h ago•117 comments

Automating AI Away

https://replicated.live/blog/away
39•gritzko•3h ago•21 comments

Show HN: Docx-CLI: agents read/edit Word docs using 1/2 the time and tokens

https://github.com/kklimuk/docx-cli
5•kirillklimuk•34m ago•1 comments

Mapping homes you can buy from the US government for <$100k

https://govauctions.app/research/cheapest-homes-in-america
72•player_piano•2h ago•63 comments

China sentences official to death for taking $325M in bribes

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c33y0n1v1xjo
103•randycupertino•2h ago•125 comments

98% isn't much

https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2026/07/03/98-isnt-very-much/
379•speckx•6h ago•256 comments

Show HN: PostgreSQL performance and cost across 23 EC2 instance types

https://postgres.saneengineer.com
70•anivan_•6h ago•12 comments

Local, CPU-Friendly, High-Quality TTS (Text-to-Speech) with Kokoro

https://ariya.io/2026/03/local-cpu-friendly-high-quality-tts-text-to-speech-with-kokoro/
3•speckx•29m ago•0 comments

Reducing Doom Loops with Final Token Preference Optimization

https://www.liquid.ai/blog/antidoom
14•dataminer•2h ago•3 comments

Why skilled workers come to Germany and then leave again

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-migrants-skilled-workers-integration-labor-market-bureaucracy-langu...
61•theanonymousone•8h ago•110 comments

Notes on Software Quality

https://anthonyhobday.com/blog/20260410
3•speckx•38m ago•0 comments

The family keeping watch over a 52-year-old pot of soup

https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/food-cooking/the-family-keeping-watch-over-a-52-year-old-pot-of-...
64•petethomas•6d ago•51 comments

GitHub Freno: cooperative, highly available throttler service

https://github.com/github/freno
18•nateb2022•1d ago•0 comments

Software Bonkers

https://craigmod.com/essays/software_bonkers/
19•razin•3h ago•12 comments

C++ Details of Asymmetric Fences

https://nekrozqliphort.github.io/posts/membarrier/
51•anon_farmer•4d ago•4 comments

Europe's company websites are mostly served by US vendors

https://ciphercue.com/blog/european-web-hosting-vendor-share-2026
226•adulion•6h ago•158 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.