function calling

A new write-up explains how to invoke a function in C without ever referencing it by name, walking through techniques such as obtaining its address indirectly and calling it through function pointers. Developers are debating the tricks, their portability across compilers, and whether such approaches are ever justified outside obfuscation, systems programming, or niche low-level use cases.

Scottish artist Gregor Harvie has created a new artwork called Superposition to mark 100 years since Erwin Schrödinger published his famous equation, which governs how the wave function of a physical system changes over time. The piece was made in collaboration with others and celebrates the centenary of one of the founding results of quantum mechanics.

A project called qcaml presents an approach to quantitative finance using the OCaml programming language. The site outlines using OCaml, a functional language valued for correctness and performance, in financial modeling and computation. Developers are discussing the project, which is notable because OCaml sees far less use in finance than Python, C++ or Julia, prompting debate about trade-offs in tooling for quantitative work.

A letter by former judges concerning elections has drawn attention in India, amid a wider controversy over dissent within the Election Commission. Senior lawyer Harish Salve weighed in, saying there was 'no decision' and calling for an end to the dispute. The exchange has put the independence and internal functioning of the election body back into public focus.

A new blog post by Debasish Ghosh examines the programming idiom 'push ifs up and fors down', which encourages developers to move conditionals toward the top of the call stack while keeping iteration lower, using algebraic reasoning about functions and effects. The piece walks through the idea's theoretical basis and then discusses where the rule breaks down in practice. Readers are debating whether the guidance holds up in real-world codebases.

A new article explains 'codemode', the idea of giving software agents a way to act by writing and executing code rather than relying on fixed tool calls. The piece has drawn attention on Hacker News, where readers are debating what the approach means for how AI agents are built and how developers should expose functionality to them.

A project called NAND-16 presents a complete 16-bit computer constructed using 277,248 NAND gates, demonstrating that a functional machine can be built from a single type of logic gate. The design is drawing attention from hardware enthusiasts discussing its scale, architecture and what it reveals about the fundamentals of digital computing.

Victoria Zuo, a partner at venture firm QED Investors, is discussing what she calls finance's 'human-not-present' economy, in which financial services increasingly operate without human involvement, driven by automation and artificial intelligence. Her remarks highlight how lending, payments and advisory functions are being reshaped as machines replace human decision-making in consumer finance.

A blog post on wiro.world explains how to call a C function without directly naming it in the source code, a technique likely relying on tricks such as function pointers, obfuscated references, or computed addresses. The post has drawn modest attention among programmers, earning 12 points and a handful of comments on Hacker News, where developers are discussing the practicality and legitimacy of the approach.

Developers are debating a common misconception in AI engineering: structured output and function calling only guarantee that a large language model's response conforms to a schema, not that the values inside it are accurate. Teams that treat schema validation as a success metric risk shipping tool calls that parse perfectly but are semantically wrong, arguing for deeper correctness checks beyond format validation.

A startup built in Rust has announced what it calls a reimplementation of Microsoft Office, saying the bulk of the code was written with Anthropic's Claude AI assistant. The project aims to recreate core office-suite functionality in the Rust language, and the announcement is drawing attention to how far AI-assisted coding can go in rebuilding large, established software products.

The Lute-gen study has turned attention to the so-called Eye–Brain Axis in teenage nutrition, examining how lutein, a carotenoid found in leafy greens and eggs, may support both visual performance and cognitive function in adolescents. The findings are drawing interest from the nutraceutical sector, where formulations aimed at eye health are increasingly being positioned around brain benefits as well.

The International Criminal Court has called on its member states to take steps to guarantee the court can keep operating despite United States sanctions. The appeal, reported by US News & World Report, comes as sanctions pressure threatens the tribunal's work and funding. The request puts the court's 100-plus member countries under renewed pressure to defend the institution's independence and continuity.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warned that many security experts assume only elliptic curve cryptography is at risk from quantum computing, while hash functions and lattice-based schemes remain safe. He cautioned that AI-driven mathematical breakthroughs over the next two years could seriously undermine the concrete security of lattice-based cryptography, calling this a major concern for post-quantum defenses.

Pope Leo XIV urged people to rediscover beauty in a world increasingly shaped by technology. In remarks reported by Catholic media, the pontiff framed beauty as an antidote to a purely functional, tech-driven culture, calling on the faithful to look beyond utility and efficiency. The appeal reflects his early focus on how digital life shapes human experience and spiritual depth.

Codeset, a coding platform, is promoting something called the 'Mystery Function', an undisclosed feature or challenge that has drawn curiosity among developers online. With no details revealed about what the function actually does, the secrecy itself is fueling speculation and discussion in programming communities.

Kosovo is facing a prolonged political deadlock that is raising the prospect of fresh elections, while protests against former rebel leaders add to tensions in the country. The standoff has left the government unable to function normally, and observers are watching whether snap elections will be called to resolve the impasse.

A clean-room, open-source reimplementation of Adobe Photoshop called Photocraft has appeared on GitHub, written entirely in Rust. The project aims to recreate Photoshop's functionality without using any of Adobe's code. Developers are sharing the repository and debating how realistic it is to replicate a professional image editor of this complexity.

A DIY firmware project called FoMni-1 is making the rounds among synthesizer enthusiasts, offering Omnichord-style functionality for the FM-1 hardware. The release has been shared within music technology and maker communities, where hobbyists follow firmware mods that repurpose or expand affordable instruments.

An open-source project called photocraft has published a cleanroom reimplementation of Adobe Creative Suite functionality, written in Rust. Cleanroom means it was built without using Adobe's original code, aiming to recreate the tools' capabilities legally and independently. Discussion is centered on how complete the port is and what it means for alternatives to Adobe's subscription software.

The question 'What about human rights?' is being raised as a broader concern, calling attention to the treatment of people and the protection of fundamental freedoms. With no specific incident attached, it functions as a general challenge to governments and institutions accused of overlooking rights obligations. Commenters and readers appear to be using the phrase to push human rights back into public debate amid competing news priorities.

A new open-source project called OpenAPPA is drawing attention for promising deterministic guardrails that constrain AI agents without breaking their functionality. The tool is positioned as a safety layer for agentic systems, letting developers enforce strict, predictable rules on agent behavior while keeping agents useful. Discussion is focused on how such guardrails fit into the broader push to make autonomous AI agents safer to deploy.

Japanese budget hotel chain Super Hotel plans to enter the AI accounting outsourcing business, selling the know-how it developed in-house to other companies. The company says the goal is what it calls 'profitable accounting', using AI to turn back-office accounting work into a value-creating function rather than a cost center, according to ITmedia NEWS.

Commentary in the HR technology press argues that payroll should be treated as a company-wide strategic function rather than a task confined to HR or finance departments. The piece suggests payroll touches compliance, employee trust and business operations, and calls for broader ownership and cross-departmental collaboration in how organisations manage and pay their workforce.

A new article in Cureus calls for primary care doctors to address muscle health from midlife, before sarcopenia develops. The authors argue that early screening for strength loss, alongside exercise and nutrition guidance, can preserve function and support healthy longevity. The piece frames sarcopenia as preventable if clinicians intervene before significant decline sets in.

A new project called QCaml, a website and resource for quantitative finance using the OCaml programming language, is circulating among developers. The material presents OCaml as a language for quantitative finance work, and programmers in the technology community are sharing and weighing the choice of a functional language for finance applications.