Top all-time · #1068
Matt Keeter
Personal blog · mattkeeter.com/blog · on HN as mkeeterprogrammingmath
Matt Keeter is a personal blog at mattkeeter.com about programming and math. Since 2013, 62 different Hacker News readers have linked it 119 times, most often “Antimony – computer-aided design tool from the Lisp machine parallel universe”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-08-23, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (25) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Matt Keeter's blog for his geometry and CAD projects (Antimony, libfive, Fidget, Kokopelli) and his thesis on implicit modelling. The linked posts are project write-ups, research and technical articles.
- Recommended for · 6 comments
- Says a plan post 'illustrates beautifully an idea', calls a constraints post 'wonderful', and the thesis is 'well-worth reading' and 'worth a read'.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 25 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Antimony – computer-aided design tool from the Lisp machine parallel universe5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2019-01-29
- Antimony – A fresh look at CAD software5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2015-05-29
- Writing a SIGGRAPH paper (for fun)3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-08-22
- It Can Happen to You3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-03-02
- Fidget3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-01-08
- Packing Memory: It's Free Real Estate3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-03-25
- Panic at the Async Runtime Shutdown3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-08-03
- The Solid-State Register Allocator3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-10-04
- Gradients Are the New Intervals3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-05-14
- Program Synthesis with Z32 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-02-01
What Hacker News says?
Antimony [0] and libfive [1] also use custom geometry kernels. [0] http://www.mattkeeter.com/projects/antimony/3/ [1] https://libfive.com/
Comment linking /projects/antimony/3/
on “FreeCAD: A free and open source multiplatform 3D parametric modeler”Submitted It Can Happen to You as a story · 1683 points
HN discussionThis is really great, thank you for doing this. Tangentially, while browsing through your blog I found this: https://www.mattkeeter.com/projects/machined-pen/the_plan.jp... This illustrates beautifully an idea that's been rattling around in my head for a while: what if the process you went through to design this manufacturing plan was the user facing cad api? When I approach a "making" problem--whether it's carpentr…
Comment linking /projects/machined-pen/the_plan.jpg
on “Fidget”Submitted Fidget as a story · 556 points
HN discussionHi, this is my project :) I particularly love this corner of CS because there's something for everyone – data structures and algorithms, low-level performance work, compilers, rendering / computer graphics, UI/UX for design tools, GPGPU programming, and more! I'll be answering questions in the threads as I see them, but feel free to connect on social media ( https://mattkeeter.com/links/ ) or follow my blog's RSS fe…
Comment linking /atom.xml
on “Fidget”Submitted Antimony – A fresh look at CAD software as a story · 357 points
HN discussionHah, I actually wrote a similar constrain solver that uses Fidget's evaluation + differentiation! This blog post was getting too long, so I'm going to write it up separately, but in the meantime: demo: https://mattkeeter.com/projects/fidget/constraints source: https://github.com/mkeeter/fidget/blob/main/demos/constraint... docs on the solver: https://docs.rs/fidget/latest/fidget/solver/
Comment linking /projects/fidget/constraints
on “Fidget”Submitted From Oscilloscope to Wireshark: A UDP Story as a story · 298 points
HN discussionCoincidentally I was just reading this other wonderful post from the author https://www.mattkeeter.com/projects/constraints/
Comment linking /projects/constraints/
on “Fidget”Submitted Do not taunt happy fun branch predictor (2023) as a story · 283 points
HN discussionIt does not support STEP export, unfortunately, because STEP files use a completely different underlying representation. Most STEP files represent shapes as a set of surfaces (e.g. trimmed NURBS). These surfaces have to form a watertight manifold, which can be treated as a solid volume. To make this actually work, you need a kernel for boundary representations (b-reps), rather than Fidget's functional representation…
Comment linking /projects/foxtrot/
on “Fidget”Submitted Beating the Compiler as a story · 195 points
HN discussionAccording to [1] the prequel is found at [2]. 1. https://hachyderm.io/@mjk/112157472314396711 2. https://www.mattkeeter.com/blog/2024-03-25-packing/
Comment linking /blog/2024-03-25-packing/
on “Who killed the network switch? A Hubris Bug Story”Submitted Halfspace experimental IDE for solid modeling with distance fields as a story · 193 points
HN discussionThis looks like its direct ancestor by the same author a couple years earlier! Great work. http://www.mattkeeter.com/projects/kokopelli/
Comment linking /projects/kokopelli/
on “Antimony – A fresh look at CAD software”Submitted A multiplayer board game in Rust and WebAssembly as a story · 188 points
HN discussionI've been working on tools of this nature for about four years, though the only thing that's made it through mostly-unchanged is the geometry kernel. This grew out of my thesis work (2011-2013); in rough chronological order, here are a few documents from that time period: http://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/S62.12/people/keeter.matt/ind... http://www.mattkeeter.com/projects/kokopelli/ http://www.mattkeeter.com/research/t…
Comment linking /research/siggraph_poster.pdf
on “Antimony – A fresh look at CAD software”Submitted Ao is a tool for programmatic computer-aided design using Scheme as a story · 148 points
HN discussionAntimony - https://mattkeeter.com/projects/antimony It's an open-source tool for computer-aided design, with a graph-based design flow and pervasive Python scripting.
Comment linking /projects/antimony
on “Ask HN: What are you working on and why is it awesome? Please include URL”Submitted Gradients Are the New Intervals as a story · 147 points
HN discussionHubris is not an academic exercise: it runs at the heart of every element of the Oxide rack (compute sled, switch, power shelf controller) -- and its design is informed by delivered utility above all else. Indeed -- and as Cliff elaborated in the blog -- REPLY_FAULT was something that he thought initially perhaps too aggressive, but it was our own experience in building, deploying, and (it must be said!) debugging t…
Comment linking /blog/2024-03-25-packing/
on “The server chose violence”Submitted 3D Rotation Design as a story · 147 points
HN discussionAdvent of Code is a huge amount of fun! One of my favorite problems from last year involved programming a robot to traverse an obstacle course ( https://adventofcode.com/2019/day/21 ). Interestingly, the space of potential programs was small enough (105 bits) that you could smash an SMT solver into it and solve for a correct, minimal program, given the shape of your obstacle course: https://www.mattkeeter.com/projec…
Comment linking /projects/synthesis/
on “Advent of Code 2020”Submitted XMODEM in 2022 as a story · 128 points
HN discussionVisual Programming also isn't just for "programming". The tool that Matt Keeter made, called Antimony, is a node -and- graphical interface for making 3d designs. https://www.mattkeeter.com/projects/antimony/3/ One really cool effect this tool has, is that it shows you the direct dependencies on geometries and how shapes interact with each other. So far, it brings me to 3 tools I use on a weekly basis that are node a…
Comment linking /projects/antimony/3/
on “Visual Programming Doesn’t Suck”Submitted Interactive constraint solving in Haskell as a story · 113 points
HN discussionI wrote a shader preview GUI using Zig, Neovim, and WebGPU (basically a desktop Shadertoy). It's named "Futureproof": https://www.mattkeeter.com/projects/futureproof/
Comment linking /projects/futureproof/
on “Zig in 30 Minutes”Submitted Constraint Solver (2015) as a story · 109 points
HN discussionNote that Matt Keeter has been at this for quite a while now, very generously sharing his efforts and research: https://www.mattkeeter.com/research/ In particular, his thesis is well-worth reading: https://www.mattkeeter.com/research/thesis.pdf
Comment linking /research/thesis.pdf
on “Halfspace experimental IDE for solid modeling with distance fields”Submitted The Prospero Challenge as a story · 106 points
HN discussion
