3 ms·
My experience starting to work with lisps was similar: I thought "this is a great language, if only it had a nicer syntax" and I played with things like https:/
by fiddlerwoaroof 8y ago
My experience starting to work with lisps was similar: I thought "this is a great language, if only it had a nicer syntax" and I played with things like https://readable.sourceforge.io https://readable.sourceforge.io to try to make writing lisp more like writing my favorite language at the time (Python). After a while (and especially once I learned how to use paredit effectively), something changed and I realized that the s-expression syntax was exactly the syntax that I wanted.
- int_19h 8y agoNevertheless, there's a strong argument to be made that unwieldy syntax is at least part of why Lisp-like languages aren't as popular as competitors, with syntax being the only seemingly consistent difference. And it seems particularly relevant to Clojure, given that it's otherwise very un-Lispy in many respects (e.g. cons cells are not the end-all be-all), and closer to other modern languages.