Lisp is still a secret weapon

Post by yellowapple » Wed, Sep 09, 2015, 6:58 PM UTC

bad_user wrote: post #72

jorams wrote: post #6

The author almost immediately writes off Common Lisp for lack of "frictionless access to a rich ecosystem of code written in the same language as your software", then recommends Clojure. Most of the ecosystem you have access to in Clojure is, in fact, not built in Clojure, and most Clojure libraries were/are wrappers around Java or Javascript. Footnote 1 makes no sense, suggesting that the only way to get access to "…

Seeing Common Lisp fans arguing against Clojure fans is funny since your market share combined is insignificant compared with the mainstream choices. You should learn from each other and grow that pie together. I also don't agree with you. Intuitively Lisp might be a secret weapon for startups, but not for open source where the communities of the mainstream choices are more productive, simply because of popularity. J…

Post by Goladus » Thu, Sep 10, 2015, 5:50 PM UTC

gnaritas wrote: post #140

Goladus wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, the more interesting reasons to choose languages come from the "platform and ecosystem" categories rather than syntax. Lua: It has clean, clear syntax but its real value is the implementation, which is geared towards use as an embedded language. Javascript: The language isn't bad but were it not for being the browser scripting language it never would have gotten so popular and tools like node.js pro…

> In my experience, the more interesting reasons to choose languages come from the "platform and ecosystem" categories rather than syntax. I agree, but that doesn't have anything to do with what I said. I didn't say anything about choosing a language for a particular job, I said what makes programmers prefer a language which is very much syntax. > Javascript: The language isn't bad but were it not for being the brows…

Post by Ericson2314 » Fri, Sep 11, 2015, 5:12 AM UTC

bbcbasic wrote: post #138

Ericson2314 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think yours is the best response to these sorts of painful-to-read HN threads.

It was a serious answer though. If your USP is your technology, using Lisp is meh, you better be using something that is like dynamite to the problem you are trying to solve. And the problem you are solving is more like high-frequency trading or data analysis not a peer-to-peer marketplace for rickshaw riders and their passengers.