They say hell hath no fury like a lisp fan scorned. I wonder if they hadn't been acquired, would they have still used Lisp ?
Great post on that when Steve made the switch.
http://www.redditblog.com/2005/12/on-lisp.html
Rewriting Reddit (2005)
101–110 of 118 posts
Re: Rewriting Reddit (2005)
#102>The Lisp newsgroup, comp.lang.lisp, was upset about the switch that they’re currently planning to write a competitor to reddit in Lisp, to show how right they are or something.
That must have ended as a huge success, because as we all know the important thing behind a website is the backend language...
Re: Rewriting Reddit (2005)
#103I think you can leverage these criticisms at about 90% of the framework software out there written in just about any language. Most developers like to create complex, complicated software mainly to show off their "cleverness" without thinking through the implications for the people that have to use it. It's as if they think that by cramming in every design pattern they can think of and using many different libraries…
One of the more simple litmus tests I use when evaluating a framework: Does it provide (and require you use) its own versions of data types already provided by the language (or the language's standard libraries)? If so, it's a big red flag. Not necessarily a reason to disqualify, but definitely cause to apply extra scrutiny. The thought process is: If I have to spend precious development time converting all my std::s…
>One of the more simple litmus tests I use when evaluating a framework: Does it provide (and require you use) its own versions of data types already provided by the language (or the language's standard libraries)?
That's a pretty low bar...
Re: Rewriting Reddit (2005)
#104For all people still thinking that Django is not "lean" or flexible enough for their next project, let me just leave this here: https://speakerdeck.com/mstepniowski/django-best-python-micr... A single-file web application in Django: https://github.com/mstepniowski/microdjango/blob/master/poll...
>A single-file web application in Django: https://github.com/mstepniowski/microdjango/blob/master/poll... . That still looks very complicated compared to most microframeworks I've used, including web.py. And all that django-specific logic that needs to be in there makes it harder to read unless you're familiar with the django ecosystem.
>And all that django-specific logic that needs to be in there makes it harder to read unless you're familiar with the django ecosystem.
What "django-specific" logic? Those are standard imports and a few helper objects, the kind of which you'll find in any web framework.
[edit: importants => imports]
Re: Rewriting Reddit (2005)
#105I think you can leverage these criticisms at about 90% of the framework software out there written in just about any language. Most developers like to create complex, complicated software mainly to show off their "cleverness" without thinking through the implications for the people that have to use it. It's as if they think that by cramming in every design pattern they can think of and using many different libraries…
I'm not too familiar with Django but with several other frameworks and I definitely feel like this applies to lots of them out there. In my experience though, I've worked on teams with developers who criticize frameworks for those reasons, choose a minimal or no framework at all, and spend a ton of extra, unnecessary time reinventing a worse version of a framework they decided 'sucked' once they realize they need sec…
Django actually seems to be one of the least offensive frameworks to me in that respect. It didn't really try to be clever and it did things that made sense with a minimal amount of magic.
Re: Rewriting Reddit (2005)
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
>A single-file web application in Django: https://github.com/mstepniowski/microdjango/blob/master/poll... . That still looks very complicated compared to most microframeworks I've used, including web.py. And all that django-specific logic that needs to be in there makes it harder to read unless you're familiar with the django ecosystem.
> And all that django-specific logic that needs to be in there makes it harder to read unless you're familiar with the django ecosystem. What "django-specific" logic? Those are standard imports and a few helper objects, the kind of which you'll find in any web framework. [edit: importants => imports]
I've been using flask lately and I could compress four of those imports into one import in flask. And the settings aren't even necessary.
All these things, when compared to a true microframework, contribute in legibility of the code.
Re: Rewriting Reddit (2005)
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And all that django-specific logic that needs to be in there makes it harder to read unless you're familiar with the django ecosystem. What "django-specific" logic? Those are standard imports and a few helper objects, the kind of which you'll find in any web framework. [edit: importants => imports]
I've been using flask lately and I could compress four of those imports into one import in flask. And the settings aren't even necessary. All these things, when compared to a true microframework, contribute in legibility of the code.
>And the settings aren't even necessary.
Until they are. Then you go ahead and implement an ad-hoc settings scheme.
Re: Rewriting Reddit (2005)
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I'm pretty sure he was referring to the part of the article that mentions the folks on comp.lang.lisp who were discussing writing a competitor to Reddit in Lisp. Yep, spot-on. It's the same with those guys who wanted to make a Facebook clone focused on privacy or whatever. Lots of talk and then you never hear about the project again.
You mean Diaspora? (or maybe there's another clone I missed out on). The founder of Diaspora committed suicide. I think the project mostly died with him.
Didn't know about Diaspora or the suicide. Sorry to hear that it happened :(
Re: Rewriting Reddit (2005)
#109> The Lisp newsgroup, comp.lang.lisp, was upset about the switch that they’re currently planning to write a competitor to reddit in Lisp, to show how right they are or something. That must have ended as a huge success, because as we all know the important thing behind a website is the backend language...
Isn't Hacker News written in Lisp?
Re: Rewriting Reddit (2005)
#110> The Lisp newsgroup, comp.lang.lisp, was upset about the switch that they’re currently planning to write a competitor to reddit in Lisp, to show how right they are or something. That must have ended as a huge success, because as we all know the important thing behind a website is the backend language...
Isn't Hacker News written in Lisp?
I think you miss the point of the parent comment, which is that backend language is an implementation detail and generally shouldn't matter to users. You can disagree with that point, it just is a very different point than anything addressed by noting that HN has a Lisp backend.