2 ms·

I haven't used Coral Common Lisp, but I've used SBCL. It does have much of what you're describing, and I do have to wonder why it didn't catch on with a wider a

by Zak 9y ago

I haven't used Coral Common Lisp, but I've used SBCL. It does have much of what you're describing, and I do have to wonder why it didn't catch on with a wider audience. There's a general belief in the tech community that better tech wins. When something works better, hackers will start using it, and if there are incidental barriers, they get solved. None of the explanations I've seen have been satisfactory; I reject the both the idea that Lisp isn't really that big an advantage and that the average hacker isn't smart enough to see it.

mikelevins 9y ago
SBCL is great. I use it often. I don't think the proposition that better tech wins passes the laugh test. You could argue that I'm a cynical old curmudgeon, though. I've been writing software for a living for thirty years now. It's not about hackers being smart enough to see Lisp's advantages. It's about them (1) being the sort of programmer who prefers programming-as-teaching over programming-as-carpentry, and (2) getting enough exposure to live-programming environments to see what the deal is. The important advantages are not immediately obvious. They're whole system synergies, and it takes time and experience to grasp the nature of stuff like that, regardless of how smart you are. Plus, maybe there are just more carpenters than teachers.