Advice to newbie on learning Lisp/Clojure

31–32 of 32 posts

Re: Advice to newbie on learning Lisp/Clojure

#31

Post by RiderOfGiraffes » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 9:09 AM UTC

GeorgeTirebiter wrote: post #30

btcoal wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I upvoted you to cancel out the downvote you got. Spot on.

Thanks. Look, it's the nature of text-only that doesn't capture very much of a person's "state". In order to do that with any sort of fidelity, a considerably longer post is required. Of course something short like that could be interpreted as snarky, or it could be interpreted in the spirit in which is was offered, a playful one. I understand, everything here on HN is dead serious and so trying to make a joke will g…

I don't agree that everything here on HN is dead serious. However, the bits that are funny also add value. the bits that are funny for funny's sake are quickly down-voted, and generally don't fit with the current sense of the community.

You could've phrased your submission as:

  Don't know if people here are aware of it, but if you
  were you could've replaced that entire post with

Then it would've been informative as well, and, in my experience, less likely to be downvoted.

    Now, I will go back to being my serious self ...
    Laughing is not allowed. Apparently...

HN is a multi-cultural place, and the potential for misunderstandings abounds. I've been in countries where what I thought of as a completely innocent remark has been regarded as a serious insult. I don't know how familiar you are with other cultures, but levity is frequently heavily culturally based, and getting it wrong can make you look like a complete jerk. People here usually appreciate the respectful nature of the site.

There is humor here, it's just of a different kind.

Re: Advice to newbie on learning Lisp/Clojure

#32

Post by spacemanaki » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 3:46 PM UTC

kenjackson wrote: post #27

I'm not sure going down the Scheme->List->Clojure path is the right way to go. First, I don't really know Clojure. But I do think Scheme to Lisp was more painful for me than I think it should have been. I also learned Scheme from SICP, but going to Lisp it seems like I tripped over every little thing. Things like funcall had me banging my head -- as I didn't even realize that it was something that should be different…

"Also, don't do all the exercises in SICP unless you feel like doing so. Some require domain knowledge that you frankly just don't need if your desire to learn these languages is web dev."

I disagree quite a bit... I think the exercises in SICP are really valuable and provide a lot of depth that just reading the text doesn't.

"Someone needs to do a SICP: The Web Dev Edition"

Why? If someone is really interested only in web development in a Lisp, they probably shouldn't go looking in SICP.

On the other hand, I believe that SICP has material that will make any programmer a better programmer, even if there are some examples that require "domain knowledge" (mostly math at the level of calculus). It's about the structure (building abstractions with procedures and data) and interpretation (how Lisp programs are actually executed by a machine) of computer programs, not "Web development with Lisp 101"

This is all from someone who recently finished reading SICP and lovingly doing as many exercises as possible, and is definitely of the same persuasion as the author of the OP, when he writes:

"That's where all the smuggest lisp weenies come from, or go eventually."

So take it with a grain of salt, I guess.

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