μLithp - a Lisp in 27 lines of Ruby • Hacker News Board

Re: μLithp - a Lisp in 27 lines of Ruby

#11

Post by nine_k » Fri, Jan 04, 2013, 10:40 PM UTC

pekk wrote: post #5

bitops wrote: post #3

I think this is a neat project and a nice demonstration of how Lisp-influenced Ruby is. However, whenever people post "Lisp in Ruby" stories, I always hope that it'll be a "Clojure in Ruby" implementation. I am surprised no-one has done it yet.

Apart from using the JVM, what is the advantage of Clojure over other Lisp dialects?

Javascript as a possible compile target (https://github.com/clojure/clojurescript)?

Optional static typing (a la Qi) is being implemented, too.

Re: μLithp - a Lisp in 27 lines of Ruby

#12

Post by jrockway » Fri, Jan 04, 2013, 10:42 PM UTC

nine_k wrote: post #4

1993: «Any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Common Lisp.» [1] 20 years later: for Ruby users, situation improves! :) [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspuns_tenth_rule

"Common Lisp" means the loop macro and CLOS, I think. And you guys still don't have those ;)

Re: μLithp - a Lisp in 27 lines of Ruby

#13

Post by jjtheblunt » Fri, Jan 04, 2013, 10:42 PM UTC

nine_k wrote: post #7

tzaman wrote: post #2

Is it normal that I don't have the slightest idea what I'm reading here, or is it just me?

If you don't know what Lisp is, and are a programmer, it's high time to go read about its basic principles. Lisp is very simple and very powerful. Those who don't learn it are doomed to reinvent it, badly ( cough XSLT cough ).

So true re XSLT etc.

Re: μLithp - a Lisp in 27 lines of Ruby

#14

Post by fogus » Fri, Jan 04, 2013, 10:42 PM UTC

dbyrd wrote: post #6

Cool project, but I think it's been done before in less lines: https://gist.github.com/4176087

That's based on an older version of uLithp that had a couple bugs.

Re: μLithp - a Lisp in 27 lines of Ruby

#15

Post by nine_k » Fri, Jan 04, 2013, 10:42 PM UTC

dbyrd wrote: post #6

Cool project, but I think it's been done before in less lines: https://gist.github.com/4176087

The linked gist has 40 lines (36 LOC); the article from the post boasts 27 lines.

Re: μLithp - a Lisp in 27 lines of Ruby

#16

Post by judofyr » Fri, Jan 04, 2013, 10:43 PM UTC

hk__2 wrote: post #9

You should use Docco for your page, I find it much more readable: http://jashkenas.github.com/docco/

Or, well, Rocco in this case: http://rtomayko.github.com/rocco/

Re: μLithp - a Lisp in 27 lines of Ruby

#17

Post by JasonFruit » Fri, Jan 04, 2013, 10:44 PM UTC

dbyrd wrote: post #6

Cool project, but I think it's been done before in less lines: https://gist.github.com/4176087

I've never understood the line-count craze some people get on. If it was that important, we'd all be using J or APL. Since we're not — in fact, almost nobody is — it must not be that critical.

Re: μLithp - a Lisp in 27 lines of Ruby

#18

Post by bentoner » Fri, Jan 04, 2013, 10:45 PM UTC

bitops wrote: post #3

I think this is a neat project and a nice demonstration of how Lisp-influenced Ruby is. However, whenever people post "Lisp in Ruby" stories, I always hope that it'll be a "Clojure in Ruby" implementation. I am surprised no-one has done it yet.

I always hope that it'll be a "Clojure in Ruby" implementation. I am surprised no-one has done it yet.

They have: http://rouge.io/ https://github.com/rouge-lang/rouge

Re: μLithp - a Lisp in 27 lines of Ruby

#19

Post by mtrimpe » Fri, Jan 04, 2013, 10:51 PM UTC

pekk wrote: post #5

bitops wrote: post #3

I think this is a neat project and a nice demonstration of how Lisp-influenced Ruby is. However, whenever people post "Lisp in Ruby" stories, I always hope that it'll be a "Clojure in Ruby" implementation. I am surprised no-one has done it yet.

Apart from using the JVM, what is the advantage of Clojure over other Lisp dialects?

It's default usage of purely functional data structures and a rich concurrency model (STM, actors and more.)

Re: μLithp - a Lisp in 27 lines of Ruby

#20

Post by glogla » Fri, Jan 04, 2013, 10:54 PM UTC

pekk wrote: post #5

bitops wrote: post #3

I think this is a neat project and a nice demonstration of how Lisp-influenced Ruby is. However, whenever people post "Lisp in Ruby" stories, I always hope that it'll be a "Clojure in Ruby" implementation. I am surprised no-one has done it yet.

Apart from using the JVM, what is the advantage of Clojure over other Lisp dialects?

I'm not sure about objective advantages (and note that I'm familiar only with Clojure, Common List and as much Scheme as there is in SICP), but Clojure feel kind of tight to me. In CL, array, hashmap, set and list have completely different interfaces, while in Clojure the interface is not only very similar (and nice, for example vector is also method to access itself), but allow you to use the same code to access different storage types. Clojure also felt more functional than CL. Clojure also felt more comfortable in ways such as distributing code, getting libraries and things like that, it's visible that the world of development tools have moved on since the CL of 1985.