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ChatGPT Desktop (Codex Desktop) for Linux

https://openai.com/codex/
93•allanrbo•4h ago•35 comments

DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813

https://openrouter.ai/deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro-0813
913•explosion-s•17h ago•373 comments

Tracking down the 16-year-old WAL-reset SQLite bug

https://tailscale.com/blog/sqlite-wal-reset-bug
1024•ropbear•18h ago•190 comments

Qwen3.8-2.4T

https://huggingface.co/Qwen/Qwen3.8-2.4T-A95B
616•Philpax•18h ago•143 comments

Delta

https://zed.dev/blog/introducing-delta
544•khy•14h ago•190 comments

Principia Mathematica is modern and insightful

https://okmij.org/ftp/Computation/Impressions/PrincipiaMathematica.html
147•matt_d•9h ago•67 comments

Antiqua–Fraktur dispute

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiqua%E2%80%93Fraktur_dispute
80•buzzy_hacker•2d ago•12 comments

The punched card tabulator

https://www.ibm.com/history/punched-card-tabulator
9•Bluestein•5d ago•0 comments

Mushroom behind 'tiny people' hallucinations identified

https://phys.org/news/2026-08-qa-mushroom-tiny-people-hallucinations.html
134•wglb•5d ago•109 comments

2026 Eclipse Webcams

https://jonty.github.io/2026_eclipse_webcams/
483•zoenolan•21h ago•132 comments

uBlock Origin Is Giving Up the Fight to Keep Ads Off Facebook

https://digitalescapetools.com/2026/08/ublock-origin-stops-chasing-facebook-ads.html
488•Markoff•21h ago•587 comments

Flutter 3.47

https://flutter.dev/blog/whats-new-in-flutter-3-47
98•gumby271•9h ago•96 comments

Why Target Common Lisp for Code Generation?

http://funcall.blogspot.com/2026/08/why-vibe-code-in-lisp.html
96•oumua_don17•1d ago•81 comments

Happy 45th Birthday to the IBM PC and Model F/XT

https://sharktastica.co.uk/articles/pc-fxt-45
86•tart-lemonade•9h ago•21 comments

Tim King, AmigaDOS developer, has died

https://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2026-08-00070-EN.html
270•doener•19h ago•33 comments

HTML over WebSockets: real-time SPAs with barely any JavaScript

https://en.andros.dev/blog/ef4968f5/html-over-websockets-real-time-spas-with-barely-any-javascript/
194•redbell•16h ago•136 comments

Grok 4.6

https://x.ai/news/grok-4-6
540•iLuddite•17h ago•487 comments

From rubber boots to Copa: When MicroProse Soccer revolutionized football

https://spillhistorie.no/2026/08/08/fra-gummistovler-til-copa-da-microprose-soccer-revolusjonerte...
24•TMWNN•3d ago•1 comments

Launch HN: Discovered Materials (YC P26) – AI agents to discover new materials

https://discoveredmaterials.com/research/
136•advaith08•1d ago•28 comments

The Three-Stroke Problem

https://penpot.app/blog/the-three-stroke-problem/
10•elenathor•1w ago•0 comments

Thanks to social media, canned sardines are a scarcity on the supermarket shelf

https://corneroffifth.studio/why-cant-you-find-canned-sardines-right-now/
118•carabiner•11h ago•147 comments

Someone is running mass vulnerability scans, spoofing AI bots like ClaudeBot

https://knownagents.com/insights
275•gavinhking•19h ago•200 comments

Why tiny JPEGs look different in Chrome

https://guillaumetech.github.io/posts/jpg-scaling-chrome/
297•gutechh•19h ago•64 comments

Build Wide, Ship Narrow

https://adapt.com/blog/build-wide-ship-narrow
84•ashumz•9h ago•24 comments

Pixel Watch 5

https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/devices/pixel/pixel-watch-5/
142•ortusdux•17h ago•275 comments

Breaking the WAL

https://antithesis.com/blog/2026/wal-reset-bug/
102•wwilson•13h ago•42 comments

Shade Map

https://shademap.app
193•fredley•20h ago•48 comments

Lovable raises $400M Series C

https://lovable.dev/blog/series-c
140•thoughtpeddler•16h ago•145 comments

AI is removing the middle class of software engineering?

https://blog.florianherrengt.com/ai-removing-middle-class-software-engineering.html
874•florianherrengt•19h ago•780 comments

Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation

https://woxi.ad-si.com
289•adius•23h ago•41 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.