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For me it's that lisp just sets up the language to be so easily used at multiple levels of abstraction, which is all at once a truism by also not nearly enough

by Guthur 5y ago

For me it's that lisp just sets up the language to be so easily used at multiple levels of abstraction, which is all at once a truism by also not nearly enough to communicate what it is like to use. At this stage there are likely many languages that will allow you to work at similar number of abstractions including syntax, but I'd be surprised if many feel so much like idiomatic code. Implementing macros has some constraints but it's quite possible to internalise and start writing s-exp manipulating code as if it was just any standard problem.

lmilcin 5y ago
That is a good point. To be able to utilize Lisp well you need to be able to structure your application, but you would need already a lot of experience and exposure to well structured applications. Whereas if you are a Java developer you get structure from people who designed Spring and now this is how you fill in controller, this is how you make service method, this is how you make your database layer... all these decisions were already made for you and you just need to follow to get a passable result. Freedom is a double-edged sword. If you don't know how to use it it may very well be worse than not having it in the first place.