Top all-time · #6004
Justin Pombrio
Personal blog · justinpombrio.netprogramming
Justin Pombrio's personal blog at justinpombrio.net covers programming. Since 2013, 13 different Hacker News readers have linked it 23 times, most often “Typst as a Language”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-15, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (1) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Linked in one comment in a Pyret thread about debugging Racket macro-generated code. The comment mentions the author's PLT group work at Brown but does not judge the writing.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 1 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Typst as a Language5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2024-12-01
- Using algebra to refactor data types4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-03-12
- Lindenmayer Systems2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-02-20
What Hacker News says?
Shhh! That's on the horizon! One of the frustrations of using Racket—which is macros all-the-way-down—is debugging. When you see an error message or use a stepper-debugger, you want it to be in terms of the code you wrote; not in terms of the code generated by some complicated macro which was glued together by a sleep-deprived graduate student. One of the graduate students here in the PLT group at Brown, justinpombr…
Comment linking /
on “Pyret – A language exploring scripting and functional programming”Submitted JJ Cheat Sheet as a story · 186 points
HN discussionThank you for the explanations! I learned about Hilbert curves in part from your website before constructing a "color clock" some time ago: http://justinpombrio.net/show/color-clock.html
Comment linking /show/color-clock.html
on “How to Choose Colours Procedurally”Submitted Penrose Mazes (2020) as a story · 104 points
HN discussionLocation: Cambridge, MA Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Rust, C++; JS; Python; Java; FHIR/HL7v2 Resume: https://justinpombrio.net/about-me/resume.pdf Email: On resume About me: PhD in programming languages. I've worked on healthcare software, mapping, programming languages, parsers, and editors, and I'm happy to add to that list. Passion for writing performant and correct software. Open to full-tim…
Comment linking /about-me/resume.pdf
on “Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (December 2024)”Submitted A capability-safe language would have minimized the Log4j vulnerability as a story · 99 points
HN discussionAnd you can use this algebra to refactor data types! It's a surprisingly deep topic. I wrote a blog post about it: https://justinpombrio.net/2021/03/11/algebra-and-data-types.... And someone else wrote a related blog post: https://codewords.recurse.com/issues/three/algebra-and-calcu...
Comment linking /2021/03/11/algebra-and-data-types.html
on “Where does the name "algebraic data type" come from?”Submitted Imagining a language without booleans as a story · 77 points
HN discussion> It seemed to have genuine curiosity. Yeah, they really do. I found one on a sidewalk a while back. Watched it for a while, then it came right up to me. I got it to come onto my hand. No fear. Last picture here: http://justinpombrio.net/about-me/pictures/ I left it in some bamboo after.
Comment linking /about-me/pictures/
on “Praying mantis seen hunting for fish in wild for first time”Submitted A Twist on Wadler's Printer as a story · 65 points
HN discussionHardly the hardest. Here's a harder: http://justinpombrio.net/tell/prisoner-lightbulb.html EDIT: Also, for anyone stuck on the three gods puzzle, the three sisters puzzle is a good stepping stone: http://mathpuzzlewiki.com/index.php?title=Three_princesses
Comment linking /tell/prisoner-lightbulb.html
on “The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever”Submitted Typst as a Language as a story · 17 points
HN discussionSubmitted Typst as a Programming Language as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted Typst as a Language as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted Typst as a Language as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Lindenmayer Systems as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Using algebra to refactor data types as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Algebra and Data Types as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Invariants across languages as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Lindenmayer Systems as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Typst as a Language as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Algebraic Types in Rust Explained as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Tree Editors by Justin Pombrio as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
