Top posts

Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 384 posts.

Programming Languages
2022
127

Extending Python with Rust

Sometimes a pure Python script can't just deliver the performance we need. When that's the case we have to resort to writing our logic in a "fast" compiled language like C or Rust and expose the function with through a Python module. This way we get the best of both worlds. Today I focus on how to use Rust for writing…

130

Using unwrap() in Rust is okay

One day before Rust 1.0 was released, I published a blog post covering the fundamentals of error handling . A particularly important but small section buried in the middle of the article is named “ unwrapping isn’t evil ”. That section briefly described that, broadly speaking, using unwrap() is okay if it’s in…

141

The First Lisp Compiler

This page examines the earliest surviving Lisp compiler, written by Timothy Hart and Michael Levin around 1961. To avoid repetition of phrases like “the compiler”, we will use the abbreviation “ HLC ” (for “Hart–Levin Compiler”) to refer to it. The HLC was introduced in M.I.T. AIM -039 and documented more fully in the…

147

Racket v8.5

Racket version 8.5 is now available from https://download.racket-lang.org. As of this release: Racket's new `-y` flag automatically keeps compiled files up to date, reducing subsequent load times. Error-message realms allow Racket-hosted langua...