Top all-time · #3584
Arcane Sentiment
Personal blog · arcanesentiment.blogspot.comprogramming
Arcane Sentiment is a personal blog at arcanesentiment.blogspot.com about programming. Since 2008, 20 different Hacker News readers have linked it 42 times, most often “If Scheme's numbers were like Scheme”. The last post was in 2017, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for writing on C's customary semantics, undefined behaviour, and Lisp-machine C compilers such as Zeta-C, including how it handles pointers. Also cited on Common Lisp and Forth.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 6 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
about programming languages and other user interfaces.
Most-linked posts?
- If Scheme's numbers were like Scheme2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-01-11
- Pointer arithmetic can be safe2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-05-31
What Hacker News says?
Richard Bellman coined the name, and according to legend it was because the phrase 'dynamic programming' was so anodyne that not even the most officious bureaucrat could object. In Bellman's own words[0]: "An interesting question is, ‘Where did the name, dynamic programming, come from?’ The 1950s were not good years for mathematical research. We had a very interesting gentleman in Washington named Wilson. He was Sec…
Comment linking /2010/04/why-dynamic-programming.html
on “Dynamic Programming for Technical Interviews”Submitted If Scheme's numbers were like Scheme as a story · 111 points
HN discussion"C" doesn't just include the spec but also the customary semantics [1] of the language. The customary semantics certainly include the stack and the heap. [1] https://arcanesentiment.blogspot.com/2014/12/customary-seman...
Comment linking /2014/12/customary-semantics.html
on “Should you learn C to “learn how the computer works”?”Submitted Clojure is almost as big as Common Lisp as a story · 79 points
HN discussionI think the biggest problem with undefined behavior in C is that it is taken to justify violation of C's customary semantics[1] on platforms where it isn't necessary. Many types of undefined behavior in the C standard are essentially dispensations for Lisp machines or one's complement CPUs. It's very surprising to see them invoked by the optimizer on more conventional platforms. It might not satisfy djb, but a stand…
Comment linking /2014/12/customary-semantics.html
on “Boringcc: Proposal for a C compiler for secure software”Submitted Antedating “datatype” all the way to Plankalkül (2017) as a story · 74 points
HN discussionCheck out http://arcanesentiment.blogspot.com/2012/05/pointer-arithmet... , which describes Zeta-C's handling of pointers (Zeta-C being a C compiler for Lisp machines). And as a bonus, there's a link to the Zeta-C source code!
Comment linking /2012/05/pointer-arithmetic-can-be-safe.html
on “What is memory safety?”Submitted A brief history of “type” (2015) as a story · 66 points
HN discussion> more powerful, sure, but not that different and inspired by printf bit of an understatement. it is an almost turing complete version of printf. https://arcanesentiment.blogspot.com/2009/02/value-of-extens...
Comment linking /2009/02/value-of-extensible-format-strings.html?m=1
on “Common Lisp – Myths and Legends”Submitted An onion of obfuscation as a story · 55 points
HN discussionSurprised this post didn't mention Forth. https://arcanesentiment.blogspot.com/2011/02/japanese-lisp-f... BTW this toy language came up in my search for the above: https://gist.github.com/typeswitch-dev/ac86d7e32167c1e5bf311...
Comment linking /2011/02/japanese-lisp-forth-and-historical.html
on “Japanese Explained to Programmers”Submitted Incorrect optimization in 1963 as a story · 52 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why the name "dynamic programming"? as a story · 51 points
HN discussionSubmitted Arc gets I/O right as a story · 31 points
HN discussionSubmitted What's so cool about APL as a story · 29 points
HN discussionSubmitted Language support for functions that return multiple values as a story · 26 points
HN discussionSubmitted Identity of numbers in Common Lisp and Maclisp as a story · 20 points
HN discussionSubmitted That's not what lexical scope is for as a story · 11 points
HN discussionSubmitted How-much-space-do-those-hyphens-take? as a story · 7 points
HN discussionSubmitted Belated impressions of Clojure as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted If Scheme were like Scheme as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Haskell and Syntactic Complexity as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Customary semantics (of programming languages) (2014) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Don't abbreviate rare names as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Other uses for Unicode as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted "Types considered harmful" considered insightful as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Pointer arithmetic can be safe as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Single-user Unix as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted What was the problem with internal define in Arc? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The cost of macros as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
