Hacker News: cmacleod4

New comment by cmacleod4 in "Usenet Archives"

cmacleod4 — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:48:05 +0000

As I said, the user interface is awkward. You need to select the "Content" checkbox when searching for Posts. E.g. to search for "deadlock" within comp.lang.tcl, start with https://usenetarchives.com/index.php?s=deadlock%20ingroup:co... then select "Content", unselect "Author" and "Subject" and click "Search".

New comment by cmacleod4 in "Usenet Archives"

cmacleod4 — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:37:14 +0000

In the early days Usenet propagation was slow and haphazard because the communication links available were very limited. Nowadays I can post a message on one Usenet server and it appears on other servers in a few seconds. So coherent real-time conversations are no problem.

On the other hand, with a long-running discussion, HN, Reddit, etc. still have no way to see what messages are new since you last looked at a thread, something which Usenet clients have always done and still do now.

New comment by cmacleod4 in "Usenet Archives"

cmacleod4 — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 13:35:08 +0000

Spam fell off drastically after Google Groups disconnected from Usenet a couple of years ago.

New comment by cmacleod4 in "Usenet Archives"

cmacleod4 — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 08:42:03 +0000

I had tried this site a year or two ago and found it unusable then, but it seems greatly improved now. I found posts as old as 1982, but recent coverage seems to stop around April 2022. Crucially, it supports full-text search on posts within a specific group - something which my own site https://newsgrouper.org cannot do. I find the user interface a little awkward, but it does now appear to be a really useful resource.

New comment by cmacleod4 in "Signals, the push-pull based algorithm"

cmacleod4 — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 08:10:32 +0000

Nice presentation, looks like the same thing I implemented in Tcl here: https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/ReacTcl :-)

OpenACS and Tcl/Tk Conference 2026: Vienna, 16-17 July

cmacleod4 — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 18:25:25 +0000

Article URL: https://openacs.km.at/evaluate/org/129998253/conferencenews/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47630174

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

New comment by cmacleod4 in "Intuiting Pratt Parsing"

cmacleod4 — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 10:57:15 +0000

I have a Tcl Improvement Proposal (TIP 676) currently being voted on which introduces an alternative compact form of calculation. The implementation uses a Pratt parser: https://core.tcl-lang.org/tcl/file?ci=cgm-equals-command&nam... which directly generates bytecode rather than creating a parse tree.

New comment by cmacleod4 in "Undroidwish – A single-file, batteries-included Tcl/Tk binary for many platforms"

cmacleod4 — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 18:23:54 +0000

You might be interested in https://newsgrouper.org - my web interface to Usenet, text-only. The site is implemented in Tcl, but only needs a web browser for a client. Some Android users find it preferable to the available native clients.

New comment by cmacleod4 in "HyperCard discovery: Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive (2022)"

cmacleod4 — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 13:39:29 +0000

Your question was probably misinterpreted as sarcasm. :-(

New comment by cmacleod4 in "Ask HN: Share your personal website"

cmacleod4 — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 15:12:10 +0000

Here's mine: https://cmacleod.me.uk/ - I'm a retired programmer, my site has links to various projects, mostly in Tcl, some Javascript or C, also old blog, etc.

New comment by cmacleod4 in "List of Active Usenet Groups"

cmacleod4 — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 09:30:14 +0000

Note: when posting a link to an article on Newsgrouper it's best to use the "Permalink" at the bottom of the article. People clicking that will get straight to the article without needing to login as a guest. The permalink for this article is: https://newsgrouper.org/%3C10jcmri$l9u0$1@paganini.bofh.team...

New comment by cmacleod4 in "Sandboxing Untrusted Python"

cmacleod4 — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 13:15:42 +0000

As with most Python problems, the solution is to switch to Tcl - https://www.tcl-lang.org/man/tcl9.0/TclCmd/interp.html#M44 :-)

New comment by cmacleod4 in "Show HN: Feather – a fresh Tcl reimplementation (WASM, Go)"

cmacleod4 — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 16:15:44 +0000

Very interesting!

Note that the name might be confused with an old project: https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/Feather .

New comment by cmacleod4 in "When if is just a function"

cmacleod4 — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 09:28:37 +0000

In Tcl you can redefine "if", or even delete it entirely if you're crazy enough :-)

New comment by cmacleod4 in "Hacker News – The Good Parts"

cmacleod4 — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 09:25:11 +0000

The one thing that really annoys me about HN is that when you return to a discussion that you read the day before, there is no way to easily find the comments which are new since your previous visit. This is basic functionality which Usenet always had (and still does).

New comment by cmacleod4 in "Hacker News – The Good Parts"

cmacleod4 — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 09:18:19 +0000

What "acquisition"? Nobody owns Usenet, it's a cooperative effort between many different server operators which continues to this day.

New comment by cmacleod4 in "Tcl-Lang Showcase"

cmacleod4 — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 08:14:11 +0000

"pause the program and run commands in the paused program" - that's often possible in Tcl too. There are various ways to interact with a running program, query or modify variables, run commands, load updated code, etc.

New comment by cmacleod4 in "I visited the happiest country. I wish I could unlearn its secret"

cmacleod4 — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 11:11:03 +0000

Reader mode in Firefox worked for me :-)

New comment by cmacleod4 in "Online Safety Act – shutdowns and site blocks"

cmacleod4 — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 14:51:57 +0000

Here's my geoblock message for https://newsgrouper.org -

Blocked due to UK Online Safety Act

You appear to be connecting from an IP address in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately this site is no longer available to UK users. This is due to the requirements of the UK's Online Safety Act, which are not practical for this site to comply with. If you feel this is unjustified, I can only suggest that you write to your Member of Parliament. This site remains in operation for non-UK users, as they are outside the scope of the Act.

For more information see Ofcom's official site, and an unofficial guide.

Other web interfaces to Usenet are available, and may continue to allow UK users, see Wikipedia.

New comment by cmacleod4 in "Ask HN: Why is Usenet not coming back?"

cmacleod4 — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 10:46:28 +0000

Web UIs exist with a variety of interface styles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web-based_Usenet#Web-based_sit... . The now-defunct novaBBS was probably the closest to phpBB in style, but the new go-pugleaf is aiming in a similar direction.