I've tried both. While I enjoyed the setup with Anarki better (in particular using the repl to make live inspections and changes), Racket is vastly more supported by docs and the community. So if you are a CS pro and don't mind figuring out everything for yourself then Anarki is plausible, otherwise it's kinda crazy to go that way.
Ask HN: Anarki or Racket?
11–17 of 17 posts
Re: Ask HN: Anarki or Racket?
#12Just to be clear: yes, there are other Lisps. Yes, Clojure is cool. Yes, LFE is a thing that exists. Yes Elixir is Lisp-adjacent. Yes, any of those would give me access to a larger ecosystem and the resources of a well used, well supported VM. I may be an idiot (it's been said), but I'm not a stupid idiot. I've ruled each of those out for good-ish reasons.
> I've ruled each of those out for good-ish reasons. And what would those reasons be?
LFE lacks it’s own robust web app development stack … and translating between documentation in Elixir (Phoenix) and Lisp all day will make my head hurt.
Clojure is a tougher call. For this project it might be good.
However, I want to include some CLI scripts … and the JVM adds deployment complexity for those.
ClojureScript is tempting, but I don’t see a great story about the server piece for rapid web app development there.
Re: Ask HN: Anarki or Racket?
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I've ruled each of those out for good-ish reasons. And what would those reasons be?
LFE lacks it’s own robust web app development stack … and translating between documentation in Elixir (Phoenix) and Lisp all day will make my head hurt. Clojure is a tougher call. For this project it might be good. However, I want to include some CLI scripts … and the JVM adds deployment complexity for those. ClojureScript is tempting, but I don’t see a great story about the server piece for rapid web app development…
Do you want scripts as in "i want text files run by an interpreter" or "i can package my scripts as single executables"? In Clojure land Babashka and Graal native image can do those respectively.
Re: Ask HN: Anarki or Racket?
#14Just to be clear: yes, there are other Lisps. Yes, Clojure is cool. Yes, LFE is a thing that exists. Yes Elixir is Lisp-adjacent. Yes, any of those would give me access to a larger ecosystem and the resources of a well used, well supported VM. I may be an idiot (it's been said), but I'm not a stupid idiot. I've ruled each of those out for good-ish reasons.
Any reason why Common Lisp is not considered?
Re: Ask HN: Anarki or Racket?
#15FWIW the source of both racket-stories.com as well as mini versions are available.
https://racket-stories.com/about
Re: Ask HN: Anarki or Racket?
#16Just to be clear: yes, there are other Lisps. Yes, Clojure is cool. Yes, LFE is a thing that exists. Yes Elixir is Lisp-adjacent. Yes, any of those would give me access to a larger ecosystem and the resources of a well used, well supported VM. I may be an idiot (it's been said), but I'm not a stupid idiot. I've ruled each of those out for good-ish reasons.
Any reason why Common Lisp is not considered?
It’s not in my mix because it’s a fairly “big” language, which is a huge bonus once you’re proficient but makes it a poor choice for me to dive into Lisp(s). For someone else, that might not be true. But I like to be able to hold things in my head.
In the long run, CL is a great option. My theory is that it’s a place I could go if/when I’m up and running in another Lisp.
Re: Ask HN: Anarki or Racket?
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
LFE lacks it’s own robust web app development stack … and translating between documentation in Elixir (Phoenix) and Lisp all day will make my head hurt. Clojure is a tougher call. For this project it might be good. However, I want to include some CLI scripts … and the JVM adds deployment complexity for those. ClojureScript is tempting, but I don’t see a great story about the server piece for rapid web app development…
Do you want scripts as in "i want text files run by an interpreter" or "i can package my scripts as single executables"? In Clojure land Babashka and Graal native image can do those respectively.
Text run by an interpreter. Different strokes.