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Ask YC: which editor to use for LISP programming?

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21–29 of 29 posts

Re: Ask YC: which editor to use for LISP programming?

#22
post #15

Vim and SBCL.

How do you interact with your REPL? SBCL is designed around SLIME. I find it virtually unusable without it.

You could use vilisp.vim[1], which will basically copy-and-paste Lisp forms into your REPL for you. If you use OSX, you can try pg's method[2] of dragging text between terminals.

Better yet, you could resurrect Slim-Vim[3] if you really want SLIME-like features.

[1]: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=221

[2]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=72863

[3]: http://wiki.alu.org/Slim-Vim

Re: Ask YC: which editor to use for LISP programming?

#23
post #9
post #2

I've been using the Lispworks IDE for the last few years with medium to low satisfaction. Our production server is running SBCL on Ubuntu (which runs considerably faster that LW) and my cofounder is working with Slime. He swears by Slime and I'll be making the switch soon. We are also moving from SVN to GIT.

Performance Note: Our code is running at least 10x faster on Ubuntu with SBCL over Lispworks on Windows

Out of curiosity (as a Lispworks and SBCL user who has never seen this sort of performance difference between the two) is there anything in particular that you could attribute this to (eg. FFI, Streams)

Re: Ask YC: which editor to use for LISP programming?

#25
post #23
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Performance Note: Our code is running at least 10x faster on Ubuntu with SBCL over Lispworks on Windows

Out of curiosity (as a Lispworks and SBCL user who has never seen this sort of performance difference between the two) is there anything in particular that you could attribute this to (eg. FFI, Streams)

It's hard to say, as we don't have LW on Linux to compare to. My guess is that Windows is a big contributor to the slowness.

Re: Ask YC: which editor to use for LISP programming?

#26
post #19
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Performance Note: Our code is running at least 10x faster on Ubuntu with SBCL over Lispworks on Windows

Do you attribute most of the difference in performance to the OS change or to the implementation change, though? (I'll never use Windows, but I've been considering using Lispworks again on OS X for a few things.) I've always used LW with Emacs in the past, not the LW IDE. I use Aquamacs for almost everything now...and SLIME is great. What Lisp libs are you using, if you don't mind my asking? I'm trying to figure out…

We're guessing primarily Windows, but with no LW Linux version to compare with, it is a guess.

We're using cl-sql, uffi, md5, portableaserve (with net.html and minimal use of webactions).

We have our own caching system (for key mysql db data) running in the application.

Re: Ask YC: which editor to use for LISP programming?

#28
post #27
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can Nedit send expressions from the file you're editing to a REPL? I think that's a requirement for a decent Lisp editor.

I don't think it can, but I tend to copy and paste code from Nedit into a REPL.

I did that sort of thing when I first started out with Lisp too. Do yourself a favor and try an editor that integrates with the REPL. It makes life so much easier.

Re: Ask YC: which editor to use for LISP programming?

#29
post #19
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Performance Note: Our code is running at least 10x faster on Ubuntu with SBCL over Lispworks on Windows

Do you attribute most of the difference in performance to the OS change or to the implementation change, though? (I'll never use Windows, but I've been considering using Lispworks again on OS X for a few things.) I've always used LW with Emacs in the past, not the LW IDE. I use Aquamacs for almost everything now...and SLIME is great. What Lisp libs are you using, if you don't mind my asking? I'm trying to figure out…

You call being slower by a (sometimes) 34 msec over 10000 network io requests as slow ? Most of the io stuff for php etc. is pure C. If you have /any/ non trivial application then the stability and performance of CL systems become apparent. If that is your problem, then try benchmarking string operations of CL vs. the rest of the gang.
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