The best Hacker News stories from Show from the past day

from

All Show

from the past*

day week month

with these search terms:

Create follow Go back

Latest posts:

Show HN: The C3 programming language (C alternative language)

Get it from here: <a href="https://github.com/c3lang/c3c" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/c3lang/c3c</a><p>In 2019, while contributing to the C2 language, I started up "C3" as a pet project while waiting for pull requests to be approved...<p>Now it's 6 years later and C3 well on its way to 1.0, having released 0.7.0 last week.<p>Unlike other C alternatives, C3 tries to evolve C – but without concern to backwards compatibility to the latter.<p>What it adds to C is among other things:<p>- Module system<p>- Semantic macros and compile time introspection<p>- Lightweight generic modules<p>- Zero overhead errors<p>- Build-in slices and SIMD types<p>- Gradual contracts<p>- Built-in checks in debug mode<p>You can find more details on the site: <a href="https://c3-lang.org" rel="nofollow">https://c3-lang.org</a> It might be interesting to look at the examples: <a href="https://c3-lang.org/language-overview/examples/" rel="nofollow">https://c3-lang.org/language-overview/examples/</a> so see how the language looks for some simple examples.<p><i>Some other links that might be interesting follows:</i><p>I've posted about C3 on HN before, notably<p>- <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24108980">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24108980</a><p>- <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27876570">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27876570</a><p>- <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32005678">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32005678</a><p>Here are some interviews on C3:<p>- <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC8VDRJqXfc" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC8VDRJqXfc</a><p>- <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rS8MVZH-vA" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rS8MVZH-vA</a><p>Here is a series doing various tasks in C3:<p>- <a href="https://ebn.codeberg.page/programming/c3/c3-file-io/" rel="nofollow">https://ebn.codeberg.page/programming/c3/c3-file-io/</a><p>Some projects:<p>- Gameboy emulator <a href="https://github.com/OdnetninI/Gameboy-Emulator/" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/OdnetninI/Gameboy-Emulator/</a><p>- RISCV Bare metal Hello World: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iAJxx6Ok4E" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iAJxx6Ok4E</a><p>- "Depths of Daemonheim" roguelike <a href="https://github.com/TechnicalFowl/7DRL-2025" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/TechnicalFowl/7DRL-2025</a>

Show HN: The C3 programming language (C alternative language)

Get it from here: <a href="https://github.com/c3lang/c3c" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/c3lang/c3c</a><p>In 2019, while contributing to the C2 language, I started up "C3" as a pet project while waiting for pull requests to be approved...<p>Now it's 6 years later and C3 well on its way to 1.0, having released 0.7.0 last week.<p>Unlike other C alternatives, C3 tries to evolve C – but without concern to backwards compatibility to the latter.<p>What it adds to C is among other things:<p>- Module system<p>- Semantic macros and compile time introspection<p>- Lightweight generic modules<p>- Zero overhead errors<p>- Build-in slices and SIMD types<p>- Gradual contracts<p>- Built-in checks in debug mode<p>You can find more details on the site: <a href="https://c3-lang.org" rel="nofollow">https://c3-lang.org</a> It might be interesting to look at the examples: <a href="https://c3-lang.org/language-overview/examples/" rel="nofollow">https://c3-lang.org/language-overview/examples/</a> so see how the language looks for some simple examples.<p><i>Some other links that might be interesting follows:</i><p>I've posted about C3 on HN before, notably<p>- <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24108980">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24108980</a><p>- <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27876570">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27876570</a><p>- <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32005678">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32005678</a><p>Here are some interviews on C3:<p>- <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC8VDRJqXfc" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC8VDRJqXfc</a><p>- <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rS8MVZH-vA" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rS8MVZH-vA</a><p>Here is a series doing various tasks in C3:<p>- <a href="https://ebn.codeberg.page/programming/c3/c3-file-io/" rel="nofollow">https://ebn.codeberg.page/programming/c3/c3-file-io/</a><p>Some projects:<p>- Gameboy emulator <a href="https://github.com/OdnetninI/Gameboy-Emulator/" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/OdnetninI/Gameboy-Emulator/</a><p>- RISCV Bare metal Hello World: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iAJxx6Ok4E" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iAJxx6Ok4E</a><p>- "Depths of Daemonheim" roguelike <a href="https://github.com/TechnicalFowl/7DRL-2025" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/TechnicalFowl/7DRL-2025</a>

Show HN: OpenNutrition – A free, public nutrition database

Hi HN!<p>Today I’m excited to launch OpenNutrition: a free, ODbL-licenced nutrition database of everyday generic, branded, and restaurant foods, a search engine that can browse the web to import new foods, and a companion app that bundles the database and search as a free macro tracking app.<p>Consistently logging the foods you eat has been shown to support long-term health outcomes (1)(2), but doing so easily depends on having a large, accurate, and up-to-date nutrition database. Free, public databases are often out-of-date, hard to navigate, and missing critical coverage (like branded restaurant foods). User-generated databases can be unreliable or closed-source. Commercial databases come with ongoing, often per-seat licensing costs, and usage restrictions that limit innovation.<p>As an amateur powerlifter and long-term weight loss maintainer, helping others pursue their health goals is something I care about deeply. After exiting my previous startup last year, I wanted to investigate the possibility of using LLMs to create the database and infrastructure required to make a great food logging app that was cost engineered for free and accessible distribution, as I believe that the availability of these tools is a public good. That led to creating the dataset I’m releasing today; nutritional data is public record, and its organization and dissemination should be, too.<p>What’s in the database?<p>- 5,287 common everyday foods, 3,836 prepared and generic restaurant foods, and 4,182 distinct menu items from ~50 popular US restaurant chains; foods have standardized naming, consistent numeric serving sizes, estimated micronutrient profiles, descriptions, and citations/groundings to USDA, AUSNUT, FRIDA, CNF, etc, when possible.<p>- 313,442 of the most popular US branded grocery products with standardized naming, parsed serving sizes, and additive/allergen data, grounded in branded USDA data; the most popular 1% have estimated micronutrient data, with the goal of full coverage.<p>Even the largest commercial databases can be frustrating to work with when searching for foods or customizations without existing coverage. To solve this, I created a real-time version of the same approach used to build the core database that can browse the web to learn about new foods or food customizations if needed (e.g., a highly customized Starbucks order). There is a limited demo on the web, and in-app you can log foods with text search, via barcode scan, or by image, all of which can search the web to import foods for you if needed. Foods discovered via these searches are fed back into the database, and I plan to publish updated versions as coverage expands.<p>- Search & Explore: <a href="https://www.opennutrition.app/search" rel="nofollow">https://www.opennutrition.app/search</a><p>- Methodology/About: <a href="https://www.opennutrition.app/about" rel="nofollow">https://www.opennutrition.app/about</a><p>- Get the iOS App: <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/opennutrition-macro-tracker/id6670272666">https://apps.apple.com/us/app/opennutrition-macro-tracker/id...</a><p>- Download the dataset: <a href="https://www.opennutrition.app/download" rel="nofollow">https://www.opennutrition.app/download</a><p>OpenNutrition’s iOS app offers free essential logging and a limited number of agentic searches, plus expenditure tracking and ongoing diet recommendations like best-in-class paid apps. A paid tier ($49/year) unlocks additional searches and features (data backup, prioritized micronutrient coverage for logged foods), and helps fund further development and broader library coverage.<p>I’d love to hear your feedback, questions, and suggestions—whether it’s about the database itself, a really great/bad search result, or the app.<p>1. Burke et al., 2011, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3268700/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3268700/</a><p>2. Patel et al., 2019, <a href="https://mhealth.jmir.org/2019/2/e12209/" rel="nofollow">https://mhealth.jmir.org/2019/2/e12209/</a>

Show HN: OpenNutrition – A free, public nutrition database

Hi HN!<p>Today I’m excited to launch OpenNutrition: a free, ODbL-licenced nutrition database of everyday generic, branded, and restaurant foods, a search engine that can browse the web to import new foods, and a companion app that bundles the database and search as a free macro tracking app.<p>Consistently logging the foods you eat has been shown to support long-term health outcomes (1)(2), but doing so easily depends on having a large, accurate, and up-to-date nutrition database. Free, public databases are often out-of-date, hard to navigate, and missing critical coverage (like branded restaurant foods). User-generated databases can be unreliable or closed-source. Commercial databases come with ongoing, often per-seat licensing costs, and usage restrictions that limit innovation.<p>As an amateur powerlifter and long-term weight loss maintainer, helping others pursue their health goals is something I care about deeply. After exiting my previous startup last year, I wanted to investigate the possibility of using LLMs to create the database and infrastructure required to make a great food logging app that was cost engineered for free and accessible distribution, as I believe that the availability of these tools is a public good. That led to creating the dataset I’m releasing today; nutritional data is public record, and its organization and dissemination should be, too.<p>What’s in the database?<p>- 5,287 common everyday foods, 3,836 prepared and generic restaurant foods, and 4,182 distinct menu items from ~50 popular US restaurant chains; foods have standardized naming, consistent numeric serving sizes, estimated micronutrient profiles, descriptions, and citations/groundings to USDA, AUSNUT, FRIDA, CNF, etc, when possible.<p>- 313,442 of the most popular US branded grocery products with standardized naming, parsed serving sizes, and additive/allergen data, grounded in branded USDA data; the most popular 1% have estimated micronutrient data, with the goal of full coverage.<p>Even the largest commercial databases can be frustrating to work with when searching for foods or customizations without existing coverage. To solve this, I created a real-time version of the same approach used to build the core database that can browse the web to learn about new foods or food customizations if needed (e.g., a highly customized Starbucks order). There is a limited demo on the web, and in-app you can log foods with text search, via barcode scan, or by image, all of which can search the web to import foods for you if needed. Foods discovered via these searches are fed back into the database, and I plan to publish updated versions as coverage expands.<p>- Search & Explore: <a href="https://www.opennutrition.app/search" rel="nofollow">https://www.opennutrition.app/search</a><p>- Methodology/About: <a href="https://www.opennutrition.app/about" rel="nofollow">https://www.opennutrition.app/about</a><p>- Get the iOS App: <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/opennutrition-macro-tracker/id6670272666">https://apps.apple.com/us/app/opennutrition-macro-tracker/id...</a><p>- Download the dataset: <a href="https://www.opennutrition.app/download" rel="nofollow">https://www.opennutrition.app/download</a><p>OpenNutrition’s iOS app offers free essential logging and a limited number of agentic searches, plus expenditure tracking and ongoing diet recommendations like best-in-class paid apps. A paid tier ($49/year) unlocks additional searches and features (data backup, prioritized micronutrient coverage for logged foods), and helps fund further development and broader library coverage.<p>I’d love to hear your feedback, questions, and suggestions—whether it’s about the database itself, a really great/bad search result, or the app.<p>1. Burke et al., 2011, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3268700/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3268700/</a><p>2. Patel et al., 2019, <a href="https://mhealth.jmir.org/2019/2/e12209/" rel="nofollow">https://mhealth.jmir.org/2019/2/e12209/</a>

Show HN: A Chrome extension to give you back control over short-form videos

Hi HN! I built this little extension to prevent, in my opinion, the most offensive anti-pattern used by tech companies. That is removing the seek bar in short-form videos.<p>The "seek bar" is the bar at the bottom of a video that progresses as you play the video, and that you can click on or drag to skip around. Why companies ever thought it was a good idea to get rid of this I don't know, but I find it infuriating, so I decided to add it back for myself and thought others might like it too.<p>ReelControl adds a progress bar and seeking capabilities to videos on Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and Facebook Reels.<p>I do sometimes enjoy watching short-form content and I've found that with this extension enabled I can be more mindful about it and get sucked in way less. I'm also on my phone less because I tend to favor the web versions of these platforms now.<p>Open source--PRs and issues welcome! <a href="https://github.com/darajava/seek-anywhere/" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/darajava/seek-anywhere/</a>

Show HN: A Chrome extension to give you back control over short-form videos

Hi HN! I built this little extension to prevent, in my opinion, the most offensive anti-pattern used by tech companies. That is removing the seek bar in short-form videos.<p>The "seek bar" is the bar at the bottom of a video that progresses as you play the video, and that you can click on or drag to skip around. Why companies ever thought it was a good idea to get rid of this I don't know, but I find it infuriating, so I decided to add it back for myself and thought others might like it too.<p>ReelControl adds a progress bar and seeking capabilities to videos on Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and Facebook Reels.<p>I do sometimes enjoy watching short-form content and I've found that with this extension enabled I can be more mindful about it and get sucked in way less. I'm also on my phone less because I tend to favor the web versions of these platforms now.<p>Open source--PRs and issues welcome! <a href="https://github.com/darajava/seek-anywhere/" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/darajava/seek-anywhere/</a>

Show HN: Mermaid Chart VS Code Plugin: Mermaid.js Diagrams in Visual Studio Code

Show HN: Mermaid Chart VS Code Plugin: Mermaid.js Diagrams in Visual Studio Code

Show HN: Mermaid Chart VS Code Plugin: Mermaid.js Diagrams in Visual Studio Code

Show HN: I vibecoded a 35k LoC recipe app

Over the last 2-3 weeks, I vibecoded the recipe app that I always wished existed - recipeninja.ai . It now includes a fully interactive voice assistant so you don't need to get your dirty hands over your new iPad when you're cooking.<p>Background: I’m a startup founder turned investor. I taught myself (bad) PHP in 2000, and picked up Ruby on Rails in 2011. I’d guess 2015 was the last time I wrote a line of Ruby professionally. Last month, I decided to use Windsurf to build a Rails 8 API backend and React front-end app, using OpenAI's realtime API for voice-to-voice responses. Over the last few days, I also used Claude Code and Gemini 2.5 Pro for some of the trickier features. 35,000 LoC later, this is what I built!<p>The site uses function-calling to navigate the site in realtime as you chat with the voice assistant, which I think is pretty neat.<p>For the long version, see <a href="https://tomblomfield.com/post/778601470234918912/vibecoding-a-production-app" rel="nofollow">https://tomblomfield.com/post/778601470234918912/vibecoding-...</a><p>I'd love any feedback you have!<p>Demo video of the voice assistant: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRhVc9D5kcg" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRhVc9D5kcg</a><p>Generate and edit new recipes: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwwZF6dHcHg" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwwZF6dHcHg</a>

Show HN: Textcase: A Python Library for Text Case Conversion

Show HN: Zig Topological Sort Library for Parallel Processing

I believe the best way to learn a language is by doing an in-depth project. This is my first Zig project intended for learning the ropes on publishing a Zig package. It turns out to be quite solid and performant. It might be a bit over-engineered.<p>This little library is packed with the following features:<p><pre><code> - Building dependency graph from dependency data. - Performing topological sort on the dependency graph. - Generating dependence-free subsets for parallel processing. - Cycle detection and cycle reporting.</code></pre>

Show HN: Zig Topological Sort Library for Parallel Processing

I believe the best way to learn a language is by doing an in-depth project. This is my first Zig project intended for learning the ropes on publishing a Zig package. It turns out to be quite solid and performant. It might be a bit over-engineered.<p>This little library is packed with the following features:<p><pre><code> - Building dependency graph from dependency data. - Performing topological sort on the dependency graph. - Generating dependence-free subsets for parallel processing. - Cycle detection and cycle reporting.</code></pre>

Show HN: Zig Topological Sort Library for Parallel Processing

I believe the best way to learn a language is by doing an in-depth project. This is my first Zig project intended for learning the ropes on publishing a Zig package. It turns out to be quite solid and performant. It might be a bit over-engineered.<p>This little library is packed with the following features:<p><pre><code> - Building dependency graph from dependency data. - Performing topological sort on the dependency graph. - Generating dependence-free subsets for parallel processing. - Cycle detection and cycle reporting.</code></pre>

Show HN: Terminal dashboard that throttles my PC during peak electricity rates

WattWise is a CLI tool that monitors my workstation’s power draw using a smart plug and automatically throttles the CPU & GPUs during expensive Time-of-Use electricity periods. Built with Python, uses PID controllers for smooth transitions between power states. Works with TP-Link Kasa plugs and Home Assistant.

Show HN: Terminal dashboard that throttles my PC during peak electricity rates

WattWise is a CLI tool that monitors my workstation’s power draw using a smart plug and automatically throttles the CPU & GPUs during expensive Time-of-Use electricity periods. Built with Python, uses PID controllers for smooth transitions between power states. Works with TP-Link Kasa plugs and Home Assistant.

Show HN: Offline SOS signaling+recovery app for disasters/wars

A couple of months ago, I built this app to help identify people stuck under rubble.<p>First responders have awesome tools. But in tough situations, even common folks need to help.<p>After what happened in Myanmar, we need something like this that works properly.<p>It has only been tested in controlled environments. It can also be improved; I know BLE is not _that_ effective under rubble.<p>If you have any feedback or can contribute, don't hold back.

Show HN: Offline SOS signaling+recovery app for disasters/wars

A couple of months ago, I built this app to help identify people stuck under rubble.<p>First responders have awesome tools. But in tough situations, even common folks need to help.<p>After what happened in Myanmar, we need something like this that works properly.<p>It has only been tested in controlled environments. It can also be improved; I know BLE is not _that_ effective under rubble.<p>If you have any feedback or can contribute, don't hold back.

Show HN: Offline SOS signaling+recovery app for disasters/wars

A couple of months ago, I built this app to help identify people stuck under rubble.<p>First responders have awesome tools. But in tough situations, even common folks need to help.<p>After what happened in Myanmar, we need something like this that works properly.<p>It has only been tested in controlled environments. It can also be improved; I know BLE is not _that_ effective under rubble.<p>If you have any feedback or can contribute, don't hold back.

Show HN: Qwen-2.5-32B is now the best open source OCR model

Last week was big for open source LLMs. We got:<p>- Qwen 2.5 VL (72b and 32b)<p>- Gemma-3 (27b)<p>- DeepSeek-v3-0324<p>And a couple weeks ago we got the new mistral-ocr model. We updated our OCR benchmark to include the new models.<p>We evaluated 1,000 documents for JSON extraction accuracy. Major takeaways:<p>- Qwen 2.5 VL (72b and 32b) are by far the most impressive. Both landed right around 75% accuracy (equivalent to GPT-4o’s performance). Qwen 72b was only 0.4% above 32b. Within the margin of error.<p>- Both Qwen models passed mistral-ocr (72.2%), which is specifically trained for OCR.<p>- Gemma-3 (27B) only scored 42.9%. Particularly surprising given that it's architecture is based on Gemini 2.0 which still tops the accuracy chart.<p>The data set and benchmark runner is fully open source. You can check out the code and reproduction steps here:<p>- <a href="https://getomni.ai/blog/benchmarking-open-source-models-for-ocr">https://getomni.ai/blog/benchmarking-open-source-models-for-...</a><p>- <a href="https://github.com/getomni-ai/benchmark" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/getomni-ai/benchmark</a><p>- <a href="https://huggingface.co/datasets/getomni-ai/ocr-benchmark" rel="nofollow">https://huggingface.co/datasets/getomni-ai/ocr-benchmark</a>