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Reddit 1.0 was written in Lisp

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Re: Reddit 1.0 was written in Lisp

#11

Post by defrost »

esperent wrote: post #6
newsoul wrote: post #2

Here is the twitter thread about it: https://twitter.com/ShriramKMurthi/status/166987750603426611...

The source code is much more interesting than some Twitter bro's hot take. "We took a wrong turn w/ software." ... apparently. Save your energy and check out the repo instead. I don't totally blame the guy though. If you want to play the stupid Twitter game, you have to add a trite but provocative hot take to every post you make, lest your writings languish in obscurity. The only way to win is not to play, truly.

Takes me back .. once upon a time I was an admin on old OG Freenode + #C + #lisp and recall when that was floated to take potshots at and use as a beta test crowd.

The first non reddit team submissions were some very dry comp sci papers and tech manuals .. the cats came not long after.

Re: Reddit 1.0 was written in Lisp

#13

Post by fnordsensei »

mchaver wrote: post #12

So I've read that they wrote it in Lisp at Paul Graham's request or to win favor. Does anyone know if writing your startup code in Lisp still has that benefit?

As someone who’s been involved in both, it’s not like the language you pick doesn’t make a difference, but I’d say that there are other factors that vastly overshadow it.

For example, one thing we were told when choosing to write in a lisp was that we’d have problems finding developers. It turned out to be true in that we received fewer applications, but compared to the same process with a more mainstream language, I’d say the applicants were on average of higher quality. So by the final step, we were approximately considering the same number of résumés in both cases.

But in the end, the language is not what has made the biggest impact. It’s been other, more universally applicable things, such as team dynamics and communication, clarity of vision and consistency in execution, process and planning, and a ton of other things where the particular language is not a factor.

Re: Reddit 1.0 was written in Lisp

#14

Post by optbuild »

esperent wrote: post #6
newsoul wrote: post #2

Here is the twitter thread about it: https://twitter.com/ShriramKMurthi/status/166987750603426611...

The source code is much more interesting than some Twitter bro's hot take. "We took a wrong turn w/ software." ... apparently. Save your energy and check out the repo instead. I don't totally blame the guy though. If you want to play the stupid Twitter game, you have to add a trite but provocative hot take to every post you make, lest your writings languish in obscurity. The only way to win is not to play, truly.

He is not a Twitter bro though. He has developed software extensively. He is a PL researcher, a professor at BrownU, now working in computing education.

Re: Reddit 1.0 was written in Lisp

#15

Post by wudangmonk »

The current reddit seems to be written in js/python. I can see the logic behind js since its a lot easier to find devs and thanks to all the hard work of the engineers behind v8 its not a slow language. I do not understand why python was chosen though. If you need more speed you would go with c++ and not python which is the slowest popular language.

Anyone got any insight into why python was chosen?.

Re: Reddit 1.0 was written in Lisp

#17

Post by colordrops »

wudangmonk wrote: post #15

The current reddit seems to be written in js/python. I can see the logic behind js since its a lot easier to find devs and thanks to all the hard work of the engineers behind v8 its not a slow language. I do not understand why python was chosen though. If you need more speed you would go with c++ and not python which is the slowest popular language. Anyone got any insight into why python was chosen?.

I imagine because it's obviously "fast enough" performance-wise, and an order of magnitude faster dev-wise and hiring-wise.

Re: Reddit 1.0 was written in Lisp

#18

Post by esperent »

optbuild wrote: post #14
esperent wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The source code is much more interesting than some Twitter bro's hot take. "We took a wrong turn w/ software." ... apparently. Save your energy and check out the repo instead. I don't totally blame the guy though. If you want to play the stupid Twitter game, you have to add a trite but provocative hot take to every post you make, lest your writings languish in obscurity. The only way to win is not to play, truly.

He is not a Twitter bro though. He has developed software extensively. He is a PL researcher, a professor at BrownU, now working in computing education.

No doubt in real life he's a smart guy. I don't dispute that. It proves my point even more - when on Twitter, even the smartest people get reduced to playing the dumb hot take games.

Re: Reddit 1.0 was written in Lisp

#19

Post by _8j50 »

wudangmonk wrote: post #15

The current reddit seems to be written in js/python. I can see the logic behind js since its a lot easier to find devs and thanks to all the hard work of the engineers behind v8 its not a slow language. I do not understand why python was chosen though. If you need more speed you would go with c++ and not python which is the slowest popular language. Anyone got any insight into why python was chosen?.

Ummm...same reason as JS? Why do you think they need more speed to the point they need c++? Do you think finding c++ devs easier than python devs?

Re: Reddit 1.0 was written in Lisp

#20

Post by wiseowise »

_8j50 wrote: post #19
wudangmonk wrote: post #15

The current reddit seems to be written in js/python. I can see the logic behind js since its a lot easier to find devs and thanks to all the hard work of the engineers behind v8 its not a slow language. I do not understand why python was chosen though. If you need more speed you would go with c++ and not python which is the slowest popular language. Anyone got any insight into why python was chosen?.

Ummm...same reason as JS? Why do you think they need more speed to the point they need c++? Do you think finding c++ devs easier than python devs?

> Ummm...same reason as JS? Why do you think they need more speed to the point they need c++?

Well, given complaints how much 3rd party apps cost them, they’d better off optimize their crap first.

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