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Longest Straight Line Paths on Water or Land on the Earth (2018)

https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.07389
103•joebig•4h ago•23 comments

Arbitrary code execution in QubesOS via copy-to-VM error reporting backchannel

https://www.qubes-os.org/news/2026/08/29/qsb-118/
74•vntok•3h ago•31 comments

Brits would quite like their private messages to stay private

https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/08/30/turns-out-brits-would-quite-like-their-private-me...
145•defrost•3h ago•89 comments

Everyone Should Build Their Own Network Stack

https://blog.lyc8503.net/en/post/dn42-2-dnet/
34•uneven9434•2h ago•22 comments

RISC-V is now officially supported by CPython

https://blog.python.org/2026/08/riscv-now-officially-supported/
211•lumpa•5d ago•40 comments

Spark: Sparklines in your shell

https://git.zx2c4.com/spark/about/
36•hskimse•2h ago•7 comments

Hy4 preview

https://www.tencent.com/tencent-releases-and-open-sources-tencent-hy4-preview/
335•shenli3514•17h ago•200 comments

JupyterGIS 0.16: a grammar of graphics for maps, and collaborative story maps

https://blog.jupyter.org/jupytergis-0-16-new-visualization-capabilities-collaborative-story-maps-...
38•arjxn-py•5d ago•4 comments

Xcena and Samsung's Near Memory Compute CXL Device

https://chipsandcheese.com/p/hot-chips-2026-xcena-and-samsungs
24•klelatti•5h ago•2 comments

Show HN: Bolnee-Chat – Self Hosted Chatbot Integration in Your Business Website

https://github.com/AniketWathore/bolnee-chat
18•AniketWathore•2h ago•0 comments

Casey Muratori – The Root of the Root of All Evil – BSC 2026 [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpj6r6CjJf8
12•surprisetalk•2d ago•0 comments

California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/california-lawmakers-unanimously-pass-linux-exemption...
384•shscs911•9h ago•173 comments

The Einstein-Szilard Refrigerator (2020)

https://invention.si.edu/invention-stories/einstein-szilard-refrigerator
53•EndXA•3d ago•15 comments

FreeCORE TrueNAS Core – Continued

https://freecore.org/
125•sashk•11h ago•69 comments

Tether: iMessage, SMS, etc. on Linux

https://zackbartel.com/blog/2026/08/tether/
483•zackb•6d ago•188 comments

Bug Blindness

https://danluu.com/bug-blind/
296•davidmckenna•12h ago•182 comments

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/roman-space-telescope/
224•JumpCrisscross•20h ago•80 comments

Orbs

https://ampcode.com/notes/orbs-explained
30•tosh•4d ago•11 comments

Benchmarking Pocket-Scale Inference

https://artificialanalysis.ai/hardware-inference-stack/mobile-phones
59•sys42590•2d ago•5 comments

Creating Teensy ELF Executables for Linux (Or, "Size Is Everything") (1999)

https://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/software/tiny/teensy.html
55•Bluestein•4d ago•12 comments

Benjamin Franklin's Alter Egos Gave Him the Most Freedom

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/among-all-great-things-benjamin-franklin-invented-discover...
79•cisc•11h ago•39 comments

Fair Work Commission condemns 'plain wrong' AI legal advice

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-29/fair-work-commission-condemns-ai-legal-advice/107089766
26•martyvis•2h ago•7 comments

SQLite as a Document Database (2020)

https://dgl.cx/2020/06/sqlite-json-support
220•lioeters•5d ago•54 comments

EVE Online moves to Python 3

https://www.eveonline.com/news/view/the-move-to-python-3-begins
375•TylerJaacks•4d ago•204 comments

Lawmakers added $1 to car insurance policies. That money paid for Flock cameras

https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/28/texas-flock-cameras-auto-insurance-fee-mvcpa-grants/
329•DeepLogin•13h ago•195 comments

Glacier Mice

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier_mice
313•ostacke•5d ago•62 comments

Functional State Machines in Rust: Typestate and Newtype Patterns

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3830438.3830958
98•matt_d•17h ago•36 comments

Samsung's Processing-in-Memory (PIM)

https://chipsandcheese.com/p/hot-chips-2026-samsungs-processing
268•ingve•1d ago•104 comments

Open Oscar Server: open-source server compatible with AIM and ICQ clients

https://github.com/mk6i/open-oscar-server
46•gregsadetsky•12h ago•17 comments

Pop-2000, a lingua-franca POP-2 dialect

https://hitogata.neocities.org/POP-2000
19•surprisetalk•4d ago•1 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.