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I think the point is that Lisp lets you create an ad-hoc, poorly-specified version of any language you like, or perhaps several mashed together, which feels gre
by grey-area 10y ago
I think the point is that Lisp lets you create an ad-hoc, poorly-specified version of any language you like, or perhaps several mashed together, which feels great at the time, but feels horrible when you come back to it later.
DSLs/Jargon/New Languages are constructing a new world, and you need to be really sure the costs of that abstraction are outweighed by concrete and lasting benefits in the domain (sometimes they are, oftentimes they are not), crucially, this sort of language is often best used for a very specific domain and nowhere else (say R for statistics).
- erik_seaberg 10y agoThe DSL doesn't go away. Your only choices are to implement it, or else read and write the boilerplate you get by imperfectly compiling it in your head.
- grey-area 10y agoI agree we're just shifting complexity around, and sometimes it's a matter of taste where it goes, but very flexible languages do allow you to construct a world that is very difficult for others to understand or trace execution in.