Why is HN this interested in Lisp anyway? Not saying it's a good or bad language, just don't quite get why it receives as much attention as it does.
Because Paul Graham, who founded Y Combinator and by extension Hacker News, loves Lisp. He used it as the primary language at Viaweb (basically late 90s Shopify) and viewed the language as a key enabled of their success.
HN exists because of LISP. More precisely PG attributed success of Viaweb to LISP (speed of iteration etc) http://www.paulgraham.com/lisp.html http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html I am pretty sure the key factor was having a small and talented team. It didn't have to be LISP. They could have used another language they were familiar with.
Even if you give LISP a role, one also has to consider that it was a time when the most popular languages (C++, early Java, Perl) were pretty low-level and not at all web-friendly or async-friendly. LISP could bridge that gap because it makes it very easy to build DSLs and "go up" in abstraction with minimal fuss. If you start with Python or Ruby and their popular frameworks, these days, most of that work is already…
Lisp was a lot less web friendly then than it is now, especially compared to those languages.
Among Lisp users this is known... Also if one knows a bit about Lisp history, the headline "O'Reilly agreed to publish a book about Common Lisp" triggers some memories, since for a long time O'Reilly actively discouraged people from trying to contact them about publishing Lisp books. ;-)
Wait, why?
They didn’t sell well. It doesn’t matter how interesting or important a topic is. Eventually a publishing business has to decide on what their limits are for risk/reward. O’Reilly had decided that Lisp books cost too much and brought in too little for them.
I know Mike. He was editor of my first book and I still deal with him. He’s about the most standup guy I’ve ever worked with. If you’re thinking about writing a book, pitch Mike. I can’t recommend him more. I needed help with having the confidence to get my thoughts down on the first book and he coached me through it.
Disclaimer: 4x O’Reilly author and contributor to their blog. Don’t think there’s a financial incentive, I make less than minimum wage on books.
Even if you give LISP a role, one also has to consider that it was a time when the most popular languages (C++, early Java, Perl) were pretty low-level and not at all web-friendly or async-friendly. LISP could bridge that gap because it makes it very easy to build DSLs and "go up" in abstraction with minimal fuss. If you start with Python or Ruby and their popular frameworks, these days, most of that work is already…
Python already existed at that time for 4 years, at least.
New languages are coming out all the time. For every one like Python that proves to have serious staying power, there are dozens of others that slowly stagnate. It doesn't typically make sense to bet your business on a new unproven language; you want to use something that's already been around for awhile, clearly has staying power, and has a decent community built up around it. Lisp has fit that bill for decades now. At the time of Viaweb's founding, Python was not there yet. The closest thing that was would've been Perl.
Oh really, that's interesting. Is that sort of info widely known among the HN user base and I'm an ignoramus or is it a case of some of the users of longer standing being vocal about Lisp?
No no it's not just you. I get this kind of thing from the HN community now and then too. I once got chewed out for not knowing who Paul Graham is.
Sorry about that. People should use these kinds of questions as an opportunity to educate, not brag/exclude/shame.
I know Mike. He was editor of my first book and I still deal with him. He’s about the most standup guy I’ve ever worked with. If you’re thinking about writing a book, pitch Mike. I can’t recommend him more. I needed help with having the confidence to get my thoughts down on the first book and he coached me through it. Disclaimer: 4x O’Reilly author and contributor to their blog. Don’t think there’s a financial incent…
Why doesn't someone's experience attempting to write a technical book (even if they failed for personal reasons) belong on Hacker News?
EDIT: above post originally said "This doesn't belong on Hacker News", but is has been edited out.
I know Mike. He was editor of my first book and I still deal with him. He’s about the most standup guy I’ve ever worked with. If you’re thinking about writing a book, pitch Mike. I can’t recommend him more. I needed help with having the confidence to get my thoughts down on the first book and he coached me through it. Disclaimer: 4x O’Reilly author and contributor to their blog. Don’t think there’s a financial incent…
Why doesn't someone's experience attempting to write a technical book (even if they failed for personal reasons) belong on Hacker News? EDIT: above post originally said "This doesn't belong on Hacker News", but is has been edited out.
What organization hosts HN? From what computer science construct does that organization's name come from? Who founded that organization? How did that person get wealthy enough to start seed funding other companies? Did that person write not one, but two books on Common Lisp? Just some points to ponder.
Oh really, that's interesting. Is that sort of info widely known among the HN user base and I'm an ignoramus or is it a case of some of the users of longer standing being vocal about Lisp?
I know Mike. He was editor of my first book and I still deal with him. He’s about the most standup guy I’ve ever worked with. If you’re thinking about writing a book, pitch Mike. I can’t recommend him more. I needed help with having the confidence to get my thoughts down on the first book and he coached me through it. Disclaimer: 4x O’Reilly author and contributor to their blog. Don’t think there’s a financial incent…
Why doesn't someone's experience attempting to write a technical book (even if they failed for personal reasons) belong on Hacker News? EDIT: above post originally said "This doesn't belong on Hacker News", but is has been edited out.
What are you replying to? Did GP edit their comment?