+0.31 Working on Pharo Smalltalk: BPatterns: Rewrite Engine with Smalltalk Style

Name: HRCB Evaluation: Working on Pharo Smalltalk: BPatterns: Rewrite Engine with Smalltalk Style
Item: Working on Pharo Smalltalk: BPatterns: Rewrite Engine with Smalltalk Style
Rating: 0.288
Author: HN HRCB

Model: deepseek/deepseek-v3.2-20251201 +0.25 @cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast lite 0.00 @cf/meta/llama-4-scout-17b-16e-instruct lite 0.00 claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 +0.31 Compare

+0.31	Working on Pharo Smalltalk: BPatterns: Rewrite Engine with Smalltalk Style (dionisiydk.blogspot.com S:+0.20 )
	73 points by mpweiher 3 days ago \| 6 comments on HN \| Mild positive Editorial · v3.7 · 2026-03-01 00:50:30 0

Summary Free Expression & Education Acknowledges

This technical blog post on Smalltalk programming patterns demonstrates strong alignment with rights to education (Article 26) and free expression (Article 19) through public knowledge sharing and unrestricted information access. However, the underlying Blogger platform infrastructure incorporates third-party tracking and data collection that undermines privacy protections (Article 12), and accessibility gaps may exclude disabled readers from engaging with educational content.

Article Heatmap

Negative Neutral Positive No Data

Aggregates

Editorial Mean	+0.31	Structural Mean	+0.20
Weighted Mean	+0.29	Unweighted Mean	+0.23
Max	+0.63 Article 19	Min	-0.59 Article 12
Signal	4	No Data	27
Volatility	0.48 (High)
Negative	1	Channels	E: 0.6 S: 0.4
SETL ℹ	+0.22	Editorial-dominant
FW Ratio ℹ	60%	18 facts · 12 inferences

Evidence 15% coverage ℹ

 2H  5M  1L  27 ND 

Theme Radar

HN Discussion 3 top-level · 3 replies

jaen 2026-02-27 10:35 UTC link

This is roughly the same problem as syntactical macros in non-Lisp syntax languages.

There needs to be a way to indicate a "hole" (metavariable/unquote) in the syntax tree, and depending on the complexity of the language's grammar, that might be somewhat difficult, eg. in C++ having a hole for a type declaration runs into the common ambiguity between declarations (constructor calls) and expressions (regular calls). This needs to be worked around by eg. having multiple types of holes to disambiguate...

For the article, the idea of using an "any" prefix on identifiers instead of eg. operators such as ` , ... (Lisp macros) is an interesting solution, as it does not require extending the grammar of the language... although it's not applicable in all situations (eg. for matching grammar elements where identifiers are not allowed). For a very regular language like Smalltalk though, it's pretty good.

Grammar-based rewriting has a long line of history and research, so there's a deep well of knowledge to be mined if you feel like hitting up Google Scholar...

For modern implementations, there's eg. ast-grep and semgrep: https://ast-grep.github.io/ https://semgrep.dev/docs/writing-rules/pattern-syntax

travisgriggs 2026-02-27 16:26 UTC link

This is so damn cool. And most people won’t even see why.

They won’t realize just how amazingly cool it is that you can grab any block of code in a block closure (the [ ] syntax*), and extend that object with more behavior. And how if you have that object you can I introspect the craziest things out of it, including of course, the source it was derived from, and hence, an AST. There’s no need to make a new compiler pass, or a special tool mod. The “reserved” keyword of any doesn’t have to be bolted into the whole language, it’s just a variable that can be treated specially in this context, and only this context, so you don’t have to have special meta variables leak into the whole system.

* disclaimer: I participated in the inclusion of John and Dons excellent work into the VisualWorks IDE back in the day. I also saw “once” introduced into the Smalltalk system, a lazy runtime way of memoizing block values in place. Oh the things you could do with BlockClosure extension methods.

* aside, my favorite closure syntax of all time, way better than elixirs shorthand & stuff, or fn -> things, or trailing closures

klibertp 2026-02-27 16:50 UTC link

Honestly, as much as I love Smalltalk, I see this post as an illustration of all that's wrong in that community. Instead of documenting the original solution well, making a cheat sheet for it, or gathering examples (which you otherwise need to "hunt" for, according to the author) in one place, we're given another solution on top of the original inscrutable one. That new solution is still undocumented; in the post, there's no explanation of how it was written and how it works; instead, we get another handful of examples.

GToolkit has Lepiter, and Smalltalks in general have comments on classes that can be used to write long-form docs. Yet, the majority of Smalltalkers apparently believe that all that is not needed, and that searching for examples in the codebase gives you all the information you need. It may be true - not in all cases, but some of them - but the efficiency of that process is incredibly low. And that's even if the examples are there - mostly in test code. It's not unusual to find large areas of code that are entirely untested, though, in which case something that could be done in 15 minutes if you were provided with a solid README can take days to figure out.

Yeah, I know: the IDE, the Smalltalk environment, IS very valuable and it DOES give you superpowers. That doesn't fully offset the issue of notorious lack of documentation, though, and in effect, you're still less productive than you could be with Python. GToolkit's Lepiter is a step in the right direction, but even in GT, class comments and method docstrings are sparse. GToolkit-like environment coupled with Emacs Lisp self-documenting docstrings culture would be ideal, but somehow it just won't happen.

travisgriggs 2026-02-27 17:22 UTC link

Interesting. This has not been my experience. I have not regularly worked in Smalltalk for 12+ years, other than the occasional download and show some young programmer how cool the "petri dish of objects" was/is.

For the last many years, I've been working in C, Swift, Kotlin, Python, and Elixir. In no case, have I felt that there was a step difference between the communities. I'm doing a lot of Elixir right now, which supposedly has "the docs are great". And yet, I often can't find the answer I need to figure something out. Sure there's some inscrutible parts of Smalltalk code bases, but my point is, journeying aboard in these other lands (I do quite a bit of Python too), hasn't made me feel like "oh wow, here's the documentation I could never find." Your mileage obviously varies, I respect that. Just wasn't my experience.

znpy 2026-02-27 18:36 UTC link

Would you tell us what, in your opinion, would be needed for smalltalk to be revived and become a first class language/runtime in modern day?

theamk 2026-02-27 18:36 UTC link

Depends on the person... One person's "cool" is other person's "monkey-patched mess where runtime behavior does not correspond to code I wrote"

Editorial Channel

What the content says

+0.55

Article 26 Education

High Advocacy

Editorial

+0.55

SETL

+0.29

Article 26 protects right to education. Content is an educational blog post that teaches software engineering concepts and technical knowledge, supporting education and human development.

+0.50

Article 19 Freedom of Expression

High Advocacy Practice

Editorial

+0.50

SETL

+0.16

Article 19 protects freedom of expression and information. Content is a detailed technical blog post that explains and teaches software concepts, demonstrating free expression and knowledge sharing without censorship.

+0.45

Article 27 Cultural Participation

Medium Advocacy

Editorial

+0.45

SETL

+0.26

Article 27 protects participation in cultural life and scientific advancement. Content documents and explains software engineering research (rewrite engine patterns), contributing to scientific community knowledge.

-0.25

Article 12 Privacy

Medium Practice

Editorial

-0.25

SETL

+0.19

Article 12 protects privacy, family, home, and correspondence. Content itself is neutral technical discussion, but the platform structure includes tracking and data collection.

Preamble Preamble

Preamble focuses on human dignity and equal rights; content is technical documentation with no direct engagement.

Article 1 Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood

Article 1 addresses universal equality and reason/conscience; content does not address human equality or ethical foundations.

Article 2 Non-Discrimination

Article 2 prohibits discrimination; content is neutral technical documentation with no discriminatory or anti-discriminatory elements.

Article 3 Life, Liberty, Security

Article 3 protects life, liberty, and security; content does not address these rights.

Article 4 No Slavery

Article 4 prohibits slavery and forced labor; content does not address.

Article 5 No Torture

Article 5 prohibits torture and cruel treatment; content does not address.

Article 6 Legal Personhood

Article 6 recognizes right to personhood; content does not address.

Article 7 Equality Before Law

Article 7 provides equal legal protection; content does not address.

Article 8 Right to Remedy

Article 8 provides access to remedies for rights violations; content does not address.

Article 9 No Arbitrary Detention

Article 9 prohibits arbitrary arrest/detention; content does not address.

Article 10 Fair Hearing

Article 10 guarantees fair trial and due process; content does not address.

Article 11 Presumption of Innocence

Article 11 protects against retroactive criminal liability; content does not address.

Article 13 Freedom of Movement

Medium Practice

Article 13 protects freedom of movement; content does not address.

Article 14 Asylum

Article 14 protects right to asylum and refuge; content does not address.

Article 15 Nationality

Article 15 protects right to nationality; content does not address.

Article 16 Marriage & Family

Article 16 protects rights to marriage and family; content does not address.

Article 17 Property

Article 17 protects right to property; content does not address.

Article 18 Freedom of Thought

Article 18 protects freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; content does not address.

Article 20 Assembly & Association

Medium Practice

Article 20 protects freedom of peaceful assembly and association; content does not directly address these rights.

Article 21 Political Participation

Article 21 protects participation in government; content does not address.

Article 22 Social Security

Article 22 protects social security and cultural participation; content does not address.

Article 23 Work & Equal Pay

Article 23 protects labor rights and fair working conditions; content does not address.

Article 24 Rest & Leisure

Article 24 protects right to rest, leisure, and reasonable hours; content does not address.

Article 25 Standard of Living

Medium Practice

Article 25 protects right to adequate standard of living and health; content does not address.

Article 28 Social & International Order

Low Practice

Article 28 provides right to social/international order for rights realization; content does not address.

Article 29 Duties to Community

Article 29 establishes duties to community; content does not address.

Article 30 No Destruction of Rights

Article 30 prohibits rights destruction; content does not address.

Structural Channel

What the site does

Domain Context Profile

Element	Modifier	Affects	Note
Legal & Terms
Privacy	-0.15	Article 12	Blogger platform includes Google Analytics and ad tracking scripts (pagead2.googlesyndication.com) visible in page source, indicating third-party data collection without explicit user consent UI.
Terms of Service	—		No Terms of Service accessible on-domain; Blogger standard ToS applies but not user-controlled.
Identity & Mission
Mission	—		Personal technical blog; no explicit mission statement or values on domain.
Editorial Code	—		No editorial guidelines or code of conduct observed on domain.
Ownership	—		Blog attributed to author name in URL; Blogger platform-hosted.
Access & Distribution
Access Model	+0.15	Article 19	Public blog accessible without registration or paywall; supports free expression and information access.
Ad/Tracking	-0.15	Article 12	Google Adsense and tracking scripts present; behavioral profiling implied by third-party ad networks.
Accessibility	-0.10	Article 25	Page content is primarily code and technical discussion with minimal accessibility markup; no alt text observed for embedded content.

+0.45

Article 19 Freedom of Expression

High Advocacy Practice

Structural

+0.45

Context Modifier

+0.15

SETL

+0.16

Blog platform structure enables public expression and information access; content is published without apparent editorial restrictions; readers can access and share freely.

+0.40

Article 26 Education

High Advocacy

Structural

+0.40

Context Modifier

0.00

SETL

+0.29

Blog structure enables knowledge distribution and learning; public accessibility supports educational right; no paywall or artificial barriers to learning.

+0.30

Article 27 Cultural Participation

Medium Advocacy

Structural

+0.30

Context Modifier

0.00

SETL

+0.26

Blog enables participation in technical/cultural community through publication and discussion; supports knowledge commons.

-0.35

Article 12 Privacy

Medium Practice

Structural

-0.35

Context Modifier

-0.30

SETL

+0.19

Page contains Google Analytics tracking script (gapi.load) and Google Adsense ad network integration (pagead2.googlesyndication.com), indicating behavioral tracking and data collection that circumvent user privacy preferences.

Preamble Preamble

No observable structural signals related to Preamble commitments.

Article 1 Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood

No structural signals observable.

Article 2 Non-Discrimination

No structural signals observable.

Article 3 Life, Liberty, Security

No structural signals observable.

Article 4 No Slavery

No structural signals observable.

Article 5 No Torture

No structural signals observable.

Article 6 Legal Personhood

No structural signals observable.

Article 7 Equality Before Law

No structural signals observable.

Article 8 Right to Remedy

No structural signals observable.

Article 9 No Arbitrary Detention

No structural signals observable.

Article 10 Fair Hearing

No structural signals observable.

Article 11 Presumption of Innocence

No structural signals observable.

Article 13 Freedom of Movement

Medium Practice

Blog is publicly accessible without geographic restrictions or login requirements, supporting freedom of access and information flow.

Article 14 Asylum

No structural signals observable.

Article 15 Nationality

No structural signals observable.

Article 16 Marriage & Family

No structural signals observable.

Article 17 Property

No structural signals observable.

Article 18 Freedom of Thought

No structural signals observable.

Article 20 Assembly & Association

Medium Practice

Blog comments section (indicated in page structure) provides structural support for peaceful assembly and association around shared technical interests.

Article 21 Political Participation

No structural signals observable.

Article 22 Social Security

No structural signals observable.

Article 23 Work & Equal Pay

No structural signals observable.

Article 24 Rest & Leisure

No structural signals observable.

Article 25 Standard of Living

Medium Practice

Page lacks accessibility features (no ARIA labels, minimal alt text observed) that would support readers with disabilities, which relates to adequate living standards and health equity.

Article 28 Social & International Order

Low Practice

International blog platform (Blogger) provides infrastructure for global social order supporting rights.

Article 29 Duties to Community

No structural signals observable.

Article 30 No Destruction of Rights

No structural signals observable.

Supplementary Signals

How this content communicates, beyond directional lean. Learn more

Epistemic Quality ℹ

How well-sourced and evidence-based is this content?

0.76 medium claims

Sources		0.8
Evidence		0.8
Uncertainty		0.7
Purpose		0.8

Propaganda Flags ℹ

No manipulative rhetoric detected

0 techniques detected

Emotional Tone ℹ

Emotional character: positive/negative, intensity, authority

measured

Valence		+0.4
Arousal		0.3
Dominance		0.5

Transparency ℹ

Does the content identify its author and disclose interests?

0.33

✓ Author

More signals: context, framing & audience

Solution Orientation ℹ

Does this content offer solutions or only describe problems?

0.66 solution oriented

Reader Agency

0.7

Stakeholder Voice ℹ

Whose perspectives are represented in this content?

0.50 3 perspectives

Speaks: individuals

About: institutioncorporation

Temporal Framing ℹ

Is this content looking backward, at the present, or forward?

present short term

Geographic Scope ℹ

What geographic area does this content cover?

global

Complexity ℹ

How accessible is this content to a general audience?

technical high jargon domain specific

Longitudinal 542 HN snapshots · 40 evals

Audit Trail 60 entries

2026-03-02 06:28	eval_success	Evaluated: Mild positive (0.29)	- -
2026-03-02 06:28	model_divergence	Cross-model spread 0.29 exceeds threshold (3 models)	- -
2026-03-02 06:28	eval	Evaluated by deepseek-v3.2: +0.29 (Mild positive) 9,045 tokens -0.09
2026-03-02 06:28	rater_validation_warn	Validation warnings for model deepseek-v3.2: 0W 3R	- -
2026-03-01 18:39	eval_success	Evaluated: Moderate positive (0.38)	- -
2026-03-01 18:39	model_divergence	Cross-model spread 0.29 exceeds threshold (3 models)	- -
2026-03-01 18:39	eval	Evaluated by deepseek-v3.2: +0.38 (Moderate positive) 8,979 tokens +0.28
2026-03-01 18:39	rater_validation_warn	Validation warnings for model deepseek-v3.2: 0W 2R	- -
2026-03-01 17:23	eval_success	Evaluated: Mild positive (0.10)	- -
2026-03-01 17:23	model_divergence	Cross-model spread 0.29 exceeds threshold (3 models)	- -
2026-03-01 17:23	eval	Evaluated by deepseek-v3.2: +0.10 (Mild positive) 8,883 tokens -0.20
2026-03-01 17:23	rater_validation_warn	Validation warnings for model deepseek-v3.2: 0W 3R	- -
2026-03-01 01:25	eval_success	Lite evaluated: Neutral (0.00)	- -
2026-03-01 01:25	model_divergence	Cross-model spread 0.29 exceeds threshold (3 models)	- -
2026-03-01 01:25	eval	Evaluated by llama-3.3-70b-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning Tech tutorial no rights stance
2026-03-01 01:22	model_divergence	Cross-model spread 0.29 exceeds threshold (3 models)	- -
2026-03-01 01:22	eval_success	Lite evaluated: Neutral (0.00)	- -
2026-03-01 01:22	eval	Evaluated by llama-4-scout-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning ED technical blog post on Smalltalk programming
2026-03-01 01:20	eval_success	Lite evaluated: Neutral (0.00)	- -
2026-03-01 01:20	model_divergence	Cross-model spread 0.29 exceeds threshold (2 models)	- -
2026-03-01 01:20	eval	Evaluated by llama-3.3-70b-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning Tech tutorial no rights stance
2026-03-01 00:50	eval_success	Evaluated: Mild positive (0.29)	- -
2026-03-01 00:50	eval	Evaluated by claude-haiku-4-5-20251001: +0.29 (Mild positive) 10,924 tokens +0.29
2026-03-01 00:50	rater_validation_warn	Validation warnings for model claude-haiku-4-5-20251001: 0W 4R	- -
2026-03-01 00:30	eval_success	Lite evaluated: Neutral (0.00)	- -
2026-03-01 00:30	eval	Evaluated by llama-4-scout-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning ED technical blog post on Smalltalk programming
2026-03-01 00:27	eval_success	Lite evaluated: Neutral (0.00)	- -
2026-03-01 00:27	eval	Evaluated by llama-3.3-70b-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning Tech tutorial no rights stance
2026-02-28 23:44	eval_success	Lite evaluated: Neutral (0.00)	- -
2026-02-28 23:44	eval	Evaluated by llama-4-scout-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning ED technical blog post on Smalltalk programming
2026-02-28 23:43	eval	Evaluated by llama-3.3-70b-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning Tech tutorial no rights stance
2026-02-28 22:48	eval	Evaluated by llama-4-scout-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning ED technical blog post on Smalltalk programming
2026-02-28 22:46	eval	Evaluated by llama-3.3-70b-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning Tech tutorial no rights stance
2026-02-28 15:48	eval	Evaluated by llama-4-scout-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning ED technical blog post on Smalltalk programming
2026-02-28 15:43	eval	Evaluated by llama-4-scout-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning ED technical blog post on Smalltalk programming
2026-02-28 15:43	eval	Evaluated by llama-3.3-70b-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning Tech tutorial no rights stance
2026-02-28 14:19	eval	Evaluated by deepseek-v3.2: +0.30 (Moderate positive) 9,160 tokens
2026-02-28 11:59	eval	Evaluated by claude-haiku-4-5-20251001: 0.00 (Neutral)
2026-02-28 11:05	eval	Evaluated by llama-4-scout-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning ED technical blog post on Smalltalk programming
2026-02-28 11:04	eval	Evaluated by llama-3.3-70b-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning Tech tutorial no rights stance
2026-02-28 09:02	eval	Evaluated by llama-3.3-70b-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning Tech tutorial no rights stance
2026-02-28 06:08	eval	Evaluated by llama-3.3-70b-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning Tech tutorial no rights stance
2026-02-28 05:37	eval	Evaluated by llama-3.3-70b-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning Tech tutorial no rights stance
2026-02-28 05:03	eval	Evaluated by llama-4-scout-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning ED technical blog post on Smalltalk programming
2026-02-28 05:03	eval	Evaluated by llama-3.3-70b-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning Tech tutorial no rights stance
2026-02-28 05:03	eval	Evaluated by llama-4-scout-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning ED technical blog post on Smalltalk programming
2026-02-28 04:40	eval	Evaluated by llama-3.3-70b-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning Tech tutorial no rights stance
2026-02-28 04:27	eval	Evaluated by llama-4-scout-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning ED technical blog post on Smalltalk programming
2026-02-28 03:13	eval	Evaluated by llama-4-scout-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning ED technical blog post on Smalltalk programming
2026-02-28 03:04	eval	Evaluated by llama-3.3-70b-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning Tech tutorial no rights stance
2026-02-28 02:38	eval	Evaluated by llama-3.3-70b-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning Tech tutorial no rights stance
2026-02-28 02:37	eval	Evaluated by llama-4-scout-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning ED technical blog post on Smalltalk programming
2026-02-28 02:08	eval	Evaluated by llama-4-scout-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning ED technical blog post on Smalltalk programming
2026-02-28 01:56	eval	Evaluated by llama-3.3-70b-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning Tech tutorial no rights stance
2026-02-28 01:41	eval	Evaluated by llama-4-scout-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning ED technical blog post on Smalltalk programming
2026-02-28 01:36	eval	Evaluated by llama-4-scout-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning ED technical blog post on Smalltalk programming
2026-02-28 01:30	eval	Evaluated by llama-4-scout-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning ED technical blog post on Smalltalk programming
2026-02-28 01:28	eval	Evaluated by llama-3.3-70b-wai: 0.00 (Neutral) 0.00
	reasoning Tech tutorial no rights stance
2026-02-28 01:19	eval	Evaluated by llama-3.3-70b-wai: 0.00 (Neutral)
	reasoning Tech tutorial no rights stance
2026-02-28 01:07	eval	Evaluated by llama-4-scout-wai: 0.00 (Neutral)
	reasoning ED technical blog post on Smalltalk programming

build 1ad9551+j7zs · deployed 2026-03-02 09:09 UTC · evaluated 2026-03-02 11:31:12 UTC