Semlib
Dev tools
python library
SHOW HN2025
How HN took it
2 positive, 0 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 5 critical, out of 7 comments about the project. Thread score -0.31.
Execution: 0 for, 2 againstIdea: 1 for, 1 againstDocs: 1 for, 1 againstDesign: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Fuzzy sorting of arXiv papers and composable primitives are useful
From 2 comments
That was a small self-contained example that fit above the fold in the README (and fwiw even last year’s models like GPT-4o give the right output there). That `sort` is based on…
anishathalye on HNI think semantic data processing in this style has a nonempty set of use cases (e.g., I find the fuzzy sorting of arXiv papers to be useful, I find the examples in the docs…
anishathalye on HN
Objections
Errors compound across fuzzy operations and can launder bad data
From 1 comment
As you compose fuzzy operations your errors multiply! Nobody is asking for perfection, but this tool seems to me a straightforward way to launder bad data. If you want to do a…
Y_Y on HN
Example output for sorting presidents by right-leaning is questionable
From 1 comment
``` >>> await sort(presidents, by="right-leaning") ['Jimmy Carter', 'Bill Clinton', 'George H. W. Bush', 'Ronald Reagan'] ``` Is this supposed to be impressive? GIGO, if you want…
Y_Y on HN
Sort order in the example was confusing
From 2 comments
FWIW it doesn't serve as a great example because the ordering is not obvious. I think that is what GP was reacting to. When I say "sort a list of presidents by how right-leaning…
adastra22 on HNAsc vs Desc sort order doing a lot of lifting here.
rekwah on HN
Requests
Clarify the sort order in the README example
From 1 comment
FWIW it doesn't serve as a great example because the ordering is not obvious. I think that is what GP was reacting to. When I say "sort a list of presidents by how right-leaning…
adastra22 on HN
Questions
Does it batch requests?
From 1 comment
Instead of building a new data processing library, I would have offered only the novel NLP part and exposed it to existing libraries like pandas, polars, and spacy. Does it batch…
esafak on HN
Alternatives named
LOTUS
From 1 comment
Yeah, that was just a design choice that I made: I wanted a library that worked with `Iterator`s, felt more lightweight to me / fit my immediate needs better. I'm personally not…
anishathalye on HN
arbitron
From 1 comment
Why not? List-sorting/prioritizing list is among one of the best use-cases for LLMs, especially if the metrics for it are fuzzy, e.g. "what are the 10 sales lead of this list of…
hobofan on HN
DocETL
From 1 comment
That was a small self-contained example that fit above the fold in the README (and fwiw even last year’s models like GPT-4o give the right output there). That `sort` is based on…
anishathalye on HN