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> If I had ever seen a job posting looking for Lisp hackers, I would have been really worried. http://paulgraham.com/avg.html http://paulgraham.com/avg.html

hopler 8y ago
Viaweb used Lisp. Google used python, Java, and C++ Amazon used perl and C++ Facebook used PHP!
- noir_lord 8y ago
  I think Yahoo used a lot of C++ back in the day as well.
- myth2018 8y ago
  Indeed. And reddit used Lisp, only to their regret after some time [0]. Such decisions are in fact not simply about languages in themselves. They revolve around languages, availability of libraries needed for the task in hand, community, availability of proficient programmers vs your ability to train new ones etc. [0] https://redditblog.com/2005/12/05/on-lisp/ https://redditblog.com/2005/12/05/on-lisp/
  - kazinator 8y ago
    Reddit's rewrite was done "pretty much done in one weekend". Things that can be rewritten in one weekend are trivial; they don't speak to anything. A Lisp site that can be rewritten in Python in one weekend can be probably be rewritten in shell + awk + CGI in two weekends.
    - myth2018 8y ago
      The link exposes some underlying reasons which I think applies to bigger projects as well. Like the lack of libraries.
      - kazinator 8y ago
        Lack of libraries applies to tiny projects, because the "activation potential" has to be small. Developers are reluctant to write 1000 lines of library wrappage for the sake of 700 LOC of payload, but they might well do it for something that can be expected to be 25 kLOC, and much more likely if they're going to have 250 kLOC riding on it before the product reaches 1.0.
        myth2018 8y ago
        It definitely applies to large projects as well. It's not just a matter of what developers think about writing more code. It's a bit more complicated economic decision involving how a significant amount of resources is going to be spent on writing code, testing it, whether the team is actually capable of writing the needed libraries, security risks introduced by bugs etc etc, just to begin with.
    - myth2018 8y ago
      If they faced issues in a one-week project, I ask myself what would have happened in a project big enough to speak to something
  - fiddlerwoaroof 8y ago
    Also, looking at the reddit1.0 code, it’s not particularly well-designed. It’s very unclear whether the problem was lisp or not having the benefit of having written reddit already.
    - myth2018 8y ago
      They expose some general reasons, like the lack of tested libraries, which are applicable to other projects in general. And regardless this, my point is not showing a rant against Lisp (I'm huge fan of it in fact). My point is simply that the language may be a great choice or a bad one, the outcome is not an intrinsic property of it.

hopler 8y ago

Viaweb used Lisp. Google used python, Java, and C++ Amazon used perl and C++ Facebook used PHP!

noir_lord 8y ago
I think Yahoo used a lot of C++ back in the day as well.
myth2018 8y ago
Indeed. And reddit used Lisp, only to their regret after some time [0]. Such decisions are in fact not simply about languages in themselves. They revolve around languages, availability of libraries needed for the task in hand, community, availability of proficient programmers vs your ability to train new ones etc. [0] https://redditblog.com/2005/12/05/on-lisp/ https://redditblog.com/2005/12/05/on-lisp/
- kazinator 8y ago
  Reddit's rewrite was done "pretty much done in one weekend". Things that can be rewritten in one weekend are trivial; they don't speak to anything. A Lisp site that can be rewritten in Python in one weekend can be probably be rewritten in shell + awk + CGI in two weekends.
  - myth2018 8y ago
    The link exposes some underlying reasons which I think applies to bigger projects as well. Like the lack of libraries.
    - kazinator 8y ago
      Lack of libraries applies to tiny projects, because the "activation potential" has to be small. Developers are reluctant to write 1000 lines of library wrappage for the sake of 700 LOC of payload, but they might well do it for something that can be expected to be 25 kLOC, and much more likely if they're going to have 250 kLOC riding on it before the product reaches 1.0.
      - myth2018 8y ago
        It definitely applies to large projects as well. It's not just a matter of what developers think about writing more code. It's a bit more complicated economic decision involving how a significant amount of resources is going to be spent on writing code, testing it, whether the team is actually capable of writing the needed libraries, security risks introduced by bugs etc etc, just to begin with.
  - myth2018 8y ago
    If they faced issues in a one-week project, I ask myself what would have happened in a project big enough to speak to something
- fiddlerwoaroof 8y ago
  Also, looking at the reddit1.0 code, it’s not particularly well-designed. It’s very unclear whether the problem was lisp or not having the benefit of having written reddit already.
  - myth2018 8y ago
    They expose some general reasons, like the lack of tested libraries, which are applicable to other projects in general. And regardless this, my point is not showing a rant against Lisp (I'm huge fan of it in fact). My point is simply that the language may be a great choice or a bad one, the outcome is not an intrinsic property of it.