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Beauty in DVD Menus

https://vale.rocks/posts/dvd-menus
96•speckx•2h ago•65 comments

Show HN: I've been paying for a rural Tanzanian's education for 10 years

https://tanzaniaeducationproject.org/
94•lukehandcool•55m ago•23 comments

“Math 2.0” will need to value mathematical progress more holistically

https://mathstodon.xyz/@tao/117395269325940185
485•ent101•10h ago•475 comments

The Slow Formation of Durable Software

https://newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-slow-formation-of-durable-software/
132•benbreen•1d ago•43 comments

Telnet BBS Guide

https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/
57•kmstout•3h ago•23 comments

US Suspends Visa Program for Tech Firms Including Microsoft

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-08/us-suspends-visa-program-for-tech-firms-includ...
39•alephnerd•20m ago•17 comments

I gave Opus 5.5 one prompt and six hours to visualize Invisible Cities

https://quesma.com/blog/invisible-cities-one-shot/
188•stared•3h ago•109 comments

Claude Haiku 5.5

https://www.anthropic.com/claude-haiku-5-5
977•sfkgtbor•21h ago•457 comments

The 15-year search for a band that charted once and vanished

https://shahidhussain.com/writing/search-for-salvage/
270•shahidhussain•3d ago•98 comments

Time Travel in Braid (2015)

https://qntm.org/braid
51•Ariarule•3d ago•17 comments

OpenAI Withdraws 3 Math Papers

https://github.com/openai/math/blob/main/history.md
300•theemathas•7h ago•261 comments

Living off-grid: Hundred Rabbits

https://100r.ca/site/home.html
313•Muhammad523•2d ago•123 comments

Margaret Hamilton has died

https://news.mit.edu/2026/margaret-hamilton-computing-pioneer-dies-1007
1939•muglug•18h ago•214 comments

How did Rosalind Franklin miss the helix in her iconic DNA image? She didn't

https://www.science.org/content/article/how-did-rosalind-franklin-miss-helix-her-iconic-dna-image...
255•pavel_lishin•2d ago•85 comments

GPT‑6 and Intelligent UI for everyone

https://openai.com/index/gpt-6-for-everyone/
711•joshuawright11•21h ago•417 comments

VECOS – A windows-like operating system for the Vectrex for the UVMC2 [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ranfp_vz30
34•CharlesW•1d ago•10 comments

'Jonathan' is the oldest land animal on Earth

https://www.404media.co/oldest-living-land-animal-jonathan-the-tortoise/
217•gumby•19h ago•123 comments

Float and integer arithmetic follow two different paradigms

https://blog.pkh.me/p/49-float-and-integer-arithmetic-follow-two-different-paradigms.html
19•ibobev•3d ago•4 comments

Cleo (Mathematician)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_(mathematician)
215•djoldman•1d ago•41 comments

The Mathocalypse

https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=10169
327•6bitquant•20h ago•334 comments

Anne Carson wins Nobel Prize in literature 2026

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/oct/08/wins-the-nobel-prize-in-literature-2026
93•sonabinu•3h ago•8 comments

'The eels were climbing out of the water to die'

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/sep/24/furnace-book-east-sussex-fishing-lake
60•speckx•2d ago•24 comments

Show HN: Bigwords.page – Turn any screen into a sign. The URL is the app

https://bigwords.page/
608•SpeakingOfBrad•23h ago•146 comments

Bloody Cavemen

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n18/edmund-gordon/bloody-cavemen
31•Thevet•1d ago•3 comments

2027 Web Platform Feature Ranking

https://interop-rank.fxdx.dev/
8•jaffathecake•2h ago•3 comments

Sharing AI progress in mathematics

https://openai.com/index/sharing-ai-progress-in-mathematics/
1303•OfficialTurkey•1d ago•1481 comments

Dat-ecosystem: high level applications built on top of P2P protocols

https://dat-ecosystem.org/
42•janandonly•8h ago•14 comments

In Vienna and Beijing, the first (thorium) nuclear clocks begin to tick

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/07/science/first-nuclear-clocks-thorium-229.html
138•gumby•21h ago•44 comments

Docker Agent

https://github.com/docker/docker-agent
279•saikatsg•21h ago•129 comments

New repository settings for configuring pull request access

https://github.blog/changelog/2026-02-13-new-repository-settings-for-configuring-pull-request-acc...
37•Bluestein•2d ago•22 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.