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I was really sad that Lisp didn't take off like it appeared it might in the early 2000s. With Practical Common Lisp[1], Yegge's articles and Edi Weitz's softwa

by wtbob 11y ago

I was really sad that Lisp didn't take off like it appeared it might in the early 2000s. With Practical Common Lisp[1], Yegge's articles and Edi Weitz's software[2], as well as other articles and resources available at the time, it really looked as though the programming world was beginning to get why Lisp is such a good idea. And then the focus became JavaScript, which has all of the bad and many—but not nearly all—of the good points of Lisp, and one key differentiator: it runs in the browser, on effectively every computer, tablet and phone on the planet. Maybe the Lisp-compiled-to-JavaScript efforts will help. [1] http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/ http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/ [2] http://weitz.de/lisp.html http://weitz.de/lisp.html

deleted 11y ago
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swah 11y ago
You just gave me a great idea: I'll just call Javascript "Lisp" internally, and be glad that Lisp is everywhere.
mkozlows 11y ago
The move in the center of intellectual gravity from Java/C# to Javascript puts me in mind of Guy Steele's quote about Java, back in the day: "We were not out to win over the Lisp programmers; we were after the C++ programmers. We managed to drag a lot of them about halfway to Lisp." I think Javascript moves those Java programmers halfway further to Lisp. And while the Common Lisp revival movement sort of petered out, Racket (which is honestly much better than Common Lisp to my tastes) is still trucking along and might be poised to be the next step for a generation of programmers who've absorbed the Javascript mindset.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > And while the Common Lisp revival movement sort of petered out, Racket (which is honestly much better than Common Lisp to my tastes) is still trucking along and might be poised to be the next step for a generation of programmers who've absorbed the Javascript mindset. While I personally like Racket quite a bit, I think that the Lisp most posed to pick up the JS crowd is Clojure/ClojureScript. OTOH, maybe instead of a Lisp we'll get another halfway-from-where-they-are language for the JS programmers, and continue the Zeno's paradox of Lisp readiness...

by wtbob 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

swah 11y ago

You just gave me a great idea: I'll just call Javascript "Lisp" internally, and be glad that Lisp is everywhere.

mkozlows 11y ago

The move in the center of intellectual gravity from Java/C# to Javascript puts me in mind of Guy Steele's quote about Java, back in the day: "We were not out to win over the Lisp programmers; we were after the C++ programmers. We managed to drag a lot of them about halfway to Lisp." I think Javascript moves those Java programmers halfway further to Lisp. And while the Common Lisp revival movement sort of petered out, Racket (which is honestly much better than Common Lisp to my tastes) is still trucking along and might be poised to be the next step for a generation of programmers who've absorbed the Javascript mindset.

dragonwriter 11y ago
> And while the Common Lisp revival movement sort of petered out, Racket (which is honestly much better than Common Lisp to my tastes) is still trucking along and might be poised to be the next step for a generation of programmers who've absorbed the Javascript mindset. While I personally like Racket quite a bit, I think that the Lisp most posed to pick up the JS crowd is Clojure/ClojureScript. OTOH, maybe instead of a Lisp we'll get another halfway-from-where-they-are language for the JS programmers, and continue the Zeno's paradox of Lisp readiness...