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Flock Wants a Closely Surveilled World with No Exit

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/flock-wants-a-closely-surveilled-world-with-no-...
352•pseudolus•2h ago•281 comments

Tailwind Labs is joining Shopify

https://tailwindcss.com/blog/tailwind-is-joining-shopify
51•EdwinHoksberg•17m ago•22 comments

Desert Ant Labs: local, fast models that run on device

https://desertant.com/blog/introducing-desert-ant-labs/
111•willwhitedc•2h ago•26 comments

I advertise malicious software on Google Ads

https://xlii.space/eng/malicious-software-on-google-ads/
137•xlii•2h ago•60 comments

Claude, change the "Add to Cart" button to blue

https://opusfived.dev/
155•matthieu_bl•4h ago•52 comments

DeepSeek launching v4.1 flash cheaper and more capable than v4 pro

153•nickweb•2h ago•50 comments

Muse – Meta’s personal AI agent

https://ai.meta.com/muse/
565•yks•18h ago•621 comments

Coyote v. Acme (1990)

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1990/02/26/coyote-v-acme
68•ChrisArchitect•3d ago•24 comments

Roame (YC S23) Is Hiring Viral Content Editor

https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/roame/jobs/KuVVqSh-content-systems-builder-editor
1•zman0225•1h ago

Navier-Stokes – Tristan Buckmaster [pdf]

https://cims.nyu.edu/~tristanb/statement.pdf
1822•procedurecall•1d ago•751 comments

Lotus Notes and the dangers of starting from scratch

https://buttondown.com/blog/lotus-notes-email
87•maguay•3h ago•50 comments

Smolts: A pedagogical IDE for a teaching language

https://eighty-twenty.org/2026/09/04/smolts
12•tonyg•5d ago•0 comments

Building a Wall Lamp from Scratch

https://mbugert.de/posts/2026-09-09-bedroom-lamp-build/
29•jcklie•3h ago•7 comments

Open-source 3D anatomy explorer: 2,234 selectable BodyParts3D meshes

https://github.com/ashemag/human-atlas
26•metrofun•1d ago•10 comments

How An AI math breakthrough ignited a controversy

https://www.science.org/content/article/how-ai-math-breakthrough-ignited-controversy
154•pseudolus•3h ago•146 comments

Tension wood: A 'muscle' that can both bend and straighten plants

https://phys.org/news/2026-09-trees-muscle-posture-newly-role.html
141•mdp2021•6d ago•35 comments

How to build a printer

https://nishantjosh.dev/blogs/how-to-build-a-fking-printer/
396•cat-whisperer•16h ago•86 comments

AlphaGenome Atlas: a high-resolution map of human DNA

https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/google-deepmind/alphagenome-atlas/
579•utiiiD•22h ago•124 comments

How GPT‑5.6 Sol helps run quantum computing experiments

https://openai.com/index/codex-quantum-computing-experiments/
104•theanonymousone•6h ago•80 comments

Researchers Spot Fake Ancient Pottery Using the Earth's Magnetic Field

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/researchers-determine-how-to-spot-fake-ancient-pottery-...
64•cisc•3d ago•27 comments

A Biography of Lee Holloway, the Architect of Cloudflare's Technology (Part 1)

https://note.com/masakazu_urabe/n/n7815f5b64fab?hl=en
79•porridgeraisin•9h ago•19 comments

On Really Trying (2009)

https://gwern.net/on-really-trying
83•whoami_nr•6h ago•47 comments

Mercury 2.5

https://www.inceptionlabs.ai/blog/introducing-mercury-2-5
223•Topfi•17h ago•43 comments

DaVinci Resolve 21.1

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/release/20260908-03
420•tosh•1d ago•188 comments

Large language models develop novel social biases through adaptive exploration

https://openreview.net/challenge?redirect=%2Fforum%3Fid%3Dpc7fqaOcAH
184•paimapi•15h ago•96 comments

I-have-ADHD: A skill to stop coding agents from burying the answer

https://github.com/ayghri/i-have-adhd
489•domhudson•23h ago•334 comments

“Tweet” and the bird logo apparently enter the public domain

https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2026/09/tweet-and-the-bird-logo-apparently-enter-the-public...
152•progval•7h ago•87 comments

Tao: Open math problems being non-renewably mined by AI

https://mathstodon.xyz/@tao/117237320796901560
418•_alternator_•16h ago•359 comments

Benchmarking Qwen3.8 27B quantizations: 4-bit holds up, 1-bit collapses

https://quesma.com/blog/qwen38-27b-quantizations-benchmarked/
271•stared•22h ago•128 comments

On the Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize Problem

https://openai.com/index/navier-stokes-solution/
1296•tedsanders•20h ago•1045 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.