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Keep Our Servers Running: Your Recurring Donation Goes 3X This September

https://blog.archive.org/2026/09/01/keep-our-servers-running-your-recurring-donation-goes-3x-this...
143•sonicrocketman•2h ago•33 comments

Making a Python interpreter in 1024 bytes

https://austinhenley.com/blog/python1024.html
160•azhenley•6h ago•61 comments

I'm a seeing-eye dog for a computer

https://claytonwramsey.com/blog/seeing-eye/
27•claytonwramsey•3d ago•5 comments

It took a year to ship WebAssembly in Anubis

https://anubis.techaro.lol/blog/2026/anubis-wasm/
206•xena•9h ago•108 comments

The NX bit is not just about security

https://purplesyringa.moe/blog/guest/the-nx-bit-is-not-just-about-security/
48•torutofu•2d ago•33 comments

Ask HN: Fable hacked my piano, can I release the results?

64•jmpman•1d ago•33 comments

Nitter and XCancel resume service after legal advice

https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/commit/1428b4c2b4246f92a7e5b2673438e5fb39fcc4a3
587•zImPatrick•11h ago•292 comments

Babylonian Lamb Stew with Beets (1750–1730 BCE)

https://babylonian-collection.yale.edu/about/babylonian-cooking
124•yubblegum•3d ago•69 comments

Show HN: GET Together – A social network where you don't need POST to Post

https://gettogether.dev
26•nchudleigh•3h ago•10 comments

Ask HN: Would you read a statistics textbook?

33•usernametaken29•1d ago•16 comments

Show HN: Mador – Make any DOM reactive with a tiny 80-line Proxy state tuple

https://github.com/marsbos/mador
84•bosmarcel•8h ago•23 comments

Signing TLS handshakes inside a TPM

https://bschaatsbergen.com/posts/go-tpm-tls/
15•bschaatsbergen•8h ago•4 comments

MathKernel: An evidence-aware multi-engine mathematics kernel and MCP server

https://github.com/Staatsgeheim/MathKernel
25•staatsgeheim•5h ago•5 comments

Has anybody seen my keys? A key-hierarchy strategy for rack-level security

https://rfd.shared.oxide.computer/rfd/0301
7•cyb0rg0•3h ago•0 comments

Harnessing the Universal Geometry of Embeddings

https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.12540
61•ur-whale•9h ago•22 comments

GitSpawn: Untrusted repos can execute code via AI coding agents

https://www.manifold.security/blog/ai-coding-agents-git-hijack
5•fourfire•2d ago•2 comments

Every Novel Is Boring–Until It Isn't

https://www.publicbooks.org/every-novel-is-boring-until-it-isnt/
35•samclemens•3d ago•23 comments

Research acceleration: The view inside OpenAI

https://openai.com/index/research-acceleration-view-inside-openai
147•iamsyr•14h ago•96 comments

An Alien Mind

https://openai.com/index/an-alien-mind/
373•tosh•13h ago•330 comments

Please don't rearrange our shoes when we turn up, paramedics in Japan urge

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/28/never-tidy-paramedics-shoes-japan-custom-etiquette
52•high_na_euv•3d ago•53 comments

GrapheneOS Overhauled Default Apps and Secure Clipboard

https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/117225539756835649
240•Cider9986•9h ago•180 comments

Asahi Linux on M3

https://asahilinux.org/2026/09/m2-episode-1/
398•mdp2021•15h ago•241 comments

Black Hole of Los Alamos: Seller of surplus nuclear research materials (2011)

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/black-hole-of-los-alamos
53•Bluestein•4d ago•15 comments

Is mathematics about to enter the conservatory?

https://mbmccoy.dev/posts/mathematical-conservatory/
27•_alternator_•6h ago•45 comments

Nvidia's Jensen Huang says 'AGI has arrived' and congratulates OpenAI

https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-jensen-huang-agi-openai-astra-ai-2026-9
6•vinni2•14m ago•4 comments

NetBSD 9.5 released and EOL for NetBSD-9

https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/netbsd_9_5_released_and
122•jaypatelani•13h ago•11 comments

Reverse engineering the storage format for an undocumented database

https://blog.glazer.ee/posts/converting-cronos/
40•pintprint•2d ago•3 comments

Research carried out using NetBSD

https://www.netbsd.org/gallery/research.html
88•Bluestein•13h ago•24 comments

Opalite Health (YC W26) Is Hiring – Founding GTM

https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/opalite-health/jobs/bNedVAD-founding-gtm
1•ckuo9•12h ago

Your intellectual fly is open when you use an LLM to author a post (2025)

https://bcantrill.dtrace.org/2025/12/05/your-intellectual-fly-is-open/
619•cyb0rg0•17h ago•398 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.