3 ms·

I agree they are pretty different languages, and you give some solid points as to why: CLOS, dynamic scoping, multi-methods, etc. My point was your link mention

I agree they are pretty different languages, and you give some solid points as to why: CLOS, dynamic scoping, multi-methods, etc. My point was your link mentioned exactly none of those examples, in fact gave no examples at all, and so wasn't very convincing. The second point that the argument that Common Lisp is the "true Lisp" because that's why it was made is a faulty syllogism. Just because that was their goal of creating Common Lisp doesn't necessarily mean that is the case. And Common Lisp isn't the only language with a standard: Scheme had an IEEE standard less than a year after ANSI Common Lisp, and has several RnRS updates since then. Long story short, I don't think any language should be considered the "true Lisp". Maybe the original Lisp, but even then only as a technicality. And trying to declare a language as the "true Lisp" comes off as a little insulting to related languages and a little bit arrogant. It implies, to a certain degree, that you look down on other languages as lesser, inferior, failed attempts to reach the true zen of Lisp. I'm sure you didn't mean it that way, but as a fan of Scheme (and Common Lisp too!) it reads that way.

Jach 10y ago
Maybe there's no platonic ideal Lisp, and that's the problem, since the thing that makes programmers feel good is some vague sense that there is such an ideal. A sort of god. ;) On the level of communication and definitions though, it seems totally reasonable to me that if your goal as a community of all sorts of versions/dialects of Lisp is to unify into one standard, then you get to call your new unification the Lisp. I see your point about arrogance, though I think the insulting tone could be turned around easily -- you have these Lisp-like languages that don't even have Lisp in their name nor a lot of Lisp's crucial features trying to appropriate/claim an inheritance on all the hard work and glory and name recognition that went into Common Lisp and its predecessors. Let them have their name. I'm a pretty big fan of Clojure (and do like what Racket is doing when I read up about it) but imagine trying to sell Clojure to an old Lisp hand with "it's like Lisp" and watching them type (inc "a") vs (1+ "a"). https://pastebin.com/kBfNvxei https://pastebin.com/kBfNvxei vs https://pastebin.com/hPB2cy1X https://pastebin.com/hPB2cy1X and there's no contest. (You might win them over with further persistence but they'll probably be wondering where all their favorite parts about Lisp are in this so-called Lisp-like.)

Jach 10y ago

Maybe there's no platonic ideal Lisp, and that's the problem, since the thing that makes programmers feel good is some vague sense that there is such an ideal. A sort of god. ;) On the level of communication and definitions though, it seems totally reasonable to me that if your goal as a community of all sorts of versions/dialects of Lisp is to unify into one standard, then you get to call your new unification the Lisp. I see your point about arrogance, though I think the insulting tone could be turned around easily -- you have these Lisp-like languages that don't even have Lisp in their name nor a lot of Lisp's crucial features trying to appropriate/claim an inheritance on all the hard work and glory and name recognition that went into Common Lisp and its predecessors. Let them have their name. I'm a pretty big fan of Clojure (and do like what Racket is doing when I read up about it) but imagine trying to sell Clojure to an old Lisp hand with "it's like Lisp" and watching them type (inc "a") vs (1+ "a"). https://pastebin.com/kBfNvxei https://pastebin.com/kBfNvxei vs https://pastebin.com/hPB2cy1X https://pastebin.com/hPB2cy1X and there's no contest. (You might win them over with further persistence but they'll probably be wondering where all their favorite parts about Lisp are in this so-called Lisp-like.)