July 31, 2026
Plug in USB, summon discourse
Show HN: A udev implementation in Guile Scheme
Someone rebuilt a core Linux tool in Scheme and the comments instantly asked: why
TLDR: Goodev is a new attempt to replace a behind-the-scenes hardware tool on Linux-like systems using Scheme, with hopes of working on other operating systems too. The community reaction was immediate disbelief: less "cool" and more "why would you do this," especially after the AI-translated-code reveal.
A developer rolled into Show HN with Goodev, a fresh re-creation of the system tool that reacts when you plug in or remove hardware on a computer. In plain English: it’s trying to do an important background job that most Linux machines already handle just fine. The twist? It’s written in Guile Scheme, a niche programming language choice for something this low-level, and it’s even designed to maybe work beyond Linux one day. For tinkering fans, that’s catnip. For everyone else, it was more like: wait... why?
And that, honestly, became the whole show. The loudest reaction was pure bafflement, summed up by one brutally funny drive-by: “503. also Why?” That tiny comment basically became the thread’s spirit animal. Another commenter came in hotter, saying this felt like a strange match for Scheme in the first place, especially since the current version in C is already seen as fast and tidy. Then the conversation got extra spicy when they noticed the project admits some code was translated from C to Scheme using generative AI. Suddenly this wasn’t just a quirky hacker side project — it became a mini culture-war starter about language choices, practicality, and whether AI-assisted translation is clever engineering or cursed content.
The humor here is deliciously nerdy: people weren’t just judging the software, they were judging the vibes. Fans of experimentation may see a bold rethink of old plumbing. Critics saw someone replacing a proven wrench with a handmade flute and insisting it can also fix the sink.
Key Points
- •Goodev is a compiler and runtime for udev rules plus an implementation of the associated hardware database.
- •The project can execute udev-style device rules on hardware events and is described as not inherently tied to Linux.
- •Goodev currently does not provide libudev and has some compatibility limits, including limited OPTIONS support and no escape-sequence or case-insensitive matching support.
- •It depends on GNU Guile 3.0+ and Guile-Netlink, with optional tools such as modprobe, blkid, ethtool, and setfacl.
- •The article positions Goodev as an independent implementation for environments beyond systemd/Linux, rather than a fork like eudev.