The Popularity of Four Lisp Dialects on Github • Hacker News Board

Re: The Popularity of Four Lisp Dialects on Github

#21

Post by runarberg » Tue, Jul 30, 2013, 10:27 AM UTC

Even though most of my code is in Python and JavaScript, and probably is going to remain that in the near future, and by far the majority of my Lisp coding is and will remain in ELisp, Scheme is, and most likely will remain, my favourite programming language.

I don't use it for any practical reason, on any code that others might pick up on and build on top. I use it purely as a hobbyist language, and for that it's awesome. Scheme is how I learned Computer Science (even though I learned how to program in Python). Scheme is awesome for multiple reasons, more reasons than other languages in my opinion, and popularity is not one of theme. And that is perfectly fine.

Re: The Popularity of Four Lisp Dialects on Github

#22

Post by girvo » Tue, Jul 30, 2013, 3:36 PM UTC

BadassFractal wrote: post #10

girvo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thing is that Lisps feel... Wrong, I suppose, for doing web development. They don't seem to match my way of thinking when architecture web apps. I say this as someone who wrote a routing framework for Pharen, a Lisp dialect that compiles to PHP, so it's less pure than other dialects and has the "power" of PHP underneath it. Still didn't fit. Perhaps I need to change the way I think. For solving maths problems and…

You're right, it's probably in the eye of the beholder. To me something like a Clojure Ring app makes perfect sense. You get a request map, pipe it through a bajillion functions until you hit the DB, then you take the results of your DB operations and pipe them back through a bajillion functions all the way back to HTTP.

Oh, request-response maps (heh) well to lisps; I copied Ring's API for my project. My biggest issue I guess, is getting out of a Class and Interface mindset.

That said, do you have any advice for how to think about state in regards to web development? The database and its various assumptions were my biggest headache. What is the go-to library for Clojure here?

Re: The Popularity of Four Lisp Dialects on Github

#23

Post by peatmoss » Tue, Jul 30, 2013, 3:40 PM UTC

qnr wrote: post #11

The author didn't mention racket. Anyway, since the article is a few months old, I went to github and got the new data (as of today): #20 - Emacs Lisp #24 - Clojure #25 - Racket #35 - Scheme #36 - Common Lisp Interestingly, had PLT Scheme not been renamed into Racket, Scheme would probably be the most popular Lisp on Github.

For whatever reason, Racket has been the lisp that I sort of looked at last. Like many I-want-to-learn-lisp people, I went through a terrible survey of available options. I went through most of Practical Common Lisp, and then found Clojure. Recently, I've found Racket as the result of my wife deciding she'd learn a little programming via the introductory Coursera course taught in Racket.

I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with Racket. Everything from its beginner-friendly environment, to its functional disposition, to the availability of decent libraries, to its research into new areas such as type systems, everything feels very nicely constructed.

The only thing I really miss from Clojure is the syntactic support for maps and vectors, and the pervasive destructuring of said same.

Re: The Popularity of Four Lisp Dialects on Github

#24

Post by islon » Tue, Jul 30, 2013, 4:30 PM UTC

girvo wrote: post #22

BadassFractal wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, it's probably in the eye of the beholder. To me something like a Clojure Ring app makes perfect sense. You get a request map, pipe it through a bajillion functions until you hit the DB, then you take the results of your DB operations and pipe them back through a bajillion functions all the way back to HTTP.

Oh, request-response maps (heh) well to lisps; I copied Ring's API for my project. My biggest issue I guess, is getting out of a Class and Interface mindset. That said, do you have any advice for how to think about state in regards to web development? The database and its various assumptions were my biggest headache. What is the go-to library for Clojure here?

Well, in a typical web application (the server part) all your state is normally in the database so you don't need to worry about it. Just use pure functions that process the request get/put the data in the database and give the response. Do you have any specific needs for state other than the database?

Re: The Popularity of Four Lisp Dialects on Github

#25

Post by takikawa » Thu, Aug 01, 2013, 2:29 AM UTC

peatmoss wrote: post #23

qnr wrote: post #11

The author didn't mention racket. Anyway, since the article is a few months old, I went to github and got the new data (as of today): #20 - Emacs Lisp #24 - Clojure #25 - Racket #35 - Scheme #36 - Common Lisp Interestingly, had PLT Scheme not been renamed into Racket, Scheme would probably be the most popular Lisp on Github.

For whatever reason, Racket has been the lisp that I sort of looked at last. Like many I-want-to-learn-lisp people, I went through a terrible survey of available options. I went through most of Practical Common Lisp, and then found Clojure. Recently, I've found Racket as the result of my wife deciding she'd learn a little programming via the introductory Coursera course taught in Racket. I have to say, I'm pretty imp…

> The only thing I really miss from Clojure is the syntactic support for maps and vectors, and the pervasive destructuring of said same.

What do you mean by syntactic support for maps and vectors?