Why Lisp is Awesome • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Lisp is Awesome

#11

Post by DrJokepu » Wed, Jan 06, 2010, 9:14 PM UTC

abstractbill wrote: post #8

DrJokepu wrote: post #4

Many of these features are actually quite common in other languages. For example, C# has lambdas, functions as first class objects, closures, dynamic programming, null coalescence etc. The real power of Lisp in my opinion is not the existence of these features but the way they perfectly fit into the S-Expression syntax.

Right. Mainstream languages have been gradually evolving towards Lisp but until they adopt a simple uniform syntax they won't get real macros, which I think is the biggest difference between Lisp and other languages today.

I believe that appreciating Lisp's minimalistic, tree-like syntax requires a very mathematical way of thinking. Many (perhaps most) developers have a different way of thinking. There's nothing wrong with that, diversity is a good thing but because of that, I don't think that the S-Expression syntax will ever become "mainstream".

Re: Why Lisp is Awesome

#12

Post by apu » Wed, Jan 06, 2010, 9:18 PM UTC

joevandyk wrote: post #10

rntz wrote: post #9

This isn't why Lisp is awesome. This is why Lisp was awesome, back 50 years ago. Every single one of these features has since been adopted by mainstream scripting languages. What still sets Lisp apart is its metalinguistic capability - macros (hygienic or not).

Why would adopting language X's features make X less awesome?

Because awesome is usually used in a relative sense -- something is awesome compared to other stuff.

The implicit other stuff is "everything else."

Re: Why Lisp is Awesome

#13

Post by d0m » Wed, Jan 06, 2010, 9:18 PM UTC

Instead of cond, you can use a switch.. it makes it even more succinct. I don't know why this post is rated so high thought.. it's like a copy of the preface of any scheme book.

Re: Why Lisp is Awesome

#14

Post by abstractbill » Wed, Jan 06, 2010, 9:22 PM UTC

DrJokepu wrote: post #11

abstractbill wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. Mainstream languages have been gradually evolving towards Lisp but until they adopt a simple uniform syntax they won't get real macros, which I think is the biggest difference between Lisp and other languages today.

I believe that appreciating Lisp's minimalistic, tree-like syntax requires a very mathematical way of thinking. Many (perhaps most) developers have a different way of thinking. There's nothing wrong with that, diversity is a good thing but because of that, I don't think that the S-Expression syntax will ever become "mainstream".

I think I agree... I'm undecided though. I actually find JSON to be a positive development, and potentially a step in this direction (i.e. the fact that people now use javascript literal data syntax as a way of serializing general data, and the syntax has been written down somewhere quite carefully and is not too verbose or ugly - at least compared to something like xml). Who knows how far the mainstream will take this though...

Re: Why Lisp is Awesome

#15

Post by wendroid » Wed, Jan 06, 2010, 9:23 PM UTC

I'm not declaring the awesomeness or otherwise of Lisp but you're a shitty C coder :)

Re: Why Lisp is Awesome

#16

Post by ieure » Wed, Jan 06, 2010, 9:24 PM UTC

sokoloff wrote: post #5

If anyone misses Geocities or myspace, look at this site in IE. I'm not sure what exactly the point of (seemingly) intentionally making your blog site readable in FF and outrageously hard to read in IE is...

I got tired of fixing layouts in IE and decided it would be more fun to break it instead.

Re: Why Lisp is Awesome

#17

Post by yuan » Wed, Jan 06, 2010, 9:25 PM UTC

The "switch statement" in C is closer to the CASE macro[1] in Lisp.

[1]: http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/m_case...

Re: Why Lisp is Awesome

#18

Post by ieure » Wed, Jan 06, 2010, 9:28 PM UTC

rntz wrote: post #9

This isn't why Lisp is awesome. This is why Lisp was awesome, back 50 years ago. Every single one of these features has since been adopted by mainstream scripting languages. What still sets Lisp apart is its metalinguistic capability - macros (hygienic or not).

I was specifically writing about features Lisp pioneered which other languages adopted. I think it's enlightening to understand the roots and history of things, and fint it amazing that such an old language pioneered so many fundamental constructs.

Perhaps by 2059, we'll have languages with macros and regular syntax.

Re: Why Lisp is Awesome

#19

Post by KirinDave » Wed, Jan 06, 2010, 9:36 PM UTC

sokoloff wrote: post #5

If anyone misses Geocities or myspace, look at this site in IE. I'm not sure what exactly the point of (seemingly) intentionally making your blog site readable in FF and outrageously hard to read in IE is...

I think the point is clearly, "Fuck you, Internet Explorer." It's a sentiment many on the internet share.

I've got a few places where I simply block IE with stylesheets myself.

Re: Why Lisp is Awesome

#20

Post by cylinder714 » Wed, Jan 06, 2010, 9:42 PM UTC

clueless123 wrote: post #2

For the longest time I've heard that "Lisp is awesome", but no reasons why and when I've asked why, the answer is usually, "you have to try it to see it" This article is a pretty nice down to earth point by point explanation why list is so cool. My question is: is that it ? lambdas, data is code, dynamic programing.. I mean those features are cool, but could someone post some more clear examples of why lisp is awesom…

This isn't an enumerated list, obviously, but it piqued my interest in Lisp, among other things:

http://wiki.alu.org/RtL_Highlight_Film