4 ms·

Do we need another fractional Lisp that reuses Python/Ruby/IO syntax? Just give me the power of Lisp and more in a new and interesting way and we'll discuss im

Do we need another fractional Lisp that reuses Python/Ruby/IO syntax? Just give me the power of Lisp and more in a new and interesting way and we'll discuss implementation performance later. Oh look, operator precedence. Yet another thing prefix notation eliminates me from having to memorize or otherwise puzzle out. Why do we have to keep doing this over...and over...and over... Make an LLVM Lisp with S and M expressions and concurrency primitives and you have an interested customer, otherwise, I'll keep hacking in Clojure. I love seeing new things but I don't understand why people keep making these kinds of languages over and over, we've been doing it since Perl, Python, and Ruby came out.

aaronblohowiak 15y ago
"I don't understand why people keep making these kinds of languages over and over" -- TJ makes lots of things, from web frameworks to template engines and css DSLs, to see him make a language makes me think: "ooh, TJ made a new toy!" As far as does the world need it? That is a hard question to answer. Will it achieve mass adoption? My money is on no -- another question is: How long will TJ keep at it?
- tjholowaychuk 15y ago
  yeah, I'm really expecting it to be widely adopted, it's just a fun project to hack on in spare time and share some thoughts.
  - aaronblohowiak 15y ago
    Sweet! I love seeing your thoughts come to fruition in the language design, and how you compare your syntax and semantic choices to ruby and js. Congrats!
  - unwind 15y ago
    Missing a "not"?
    - tjholowaychuk 15y ago
      haha yikes, yeah my bad, not expecting..
zem 15y ago
the problem this seems to be solving is that everyone decides to "discuss implementation performance later", i.e. never.
- alnayyir 15y ago
  You're not familiar with Mike Pall I take it?
  - zem 15y ago
    that's more the exception than the rule. i think it's a good sign that luna put performance first.
yxhuvud 15y ago
People keep playing with the syntax because there are still low hanging fruit to pick when it comes to syntax improvements. This one seems really nice to me - I really like : as function keyword and the implications it has.
tjholowaychuk 15y ago
Because it's fun :) Nothing is set in stone, it's just a playground for now.
jdp 15y ago
Let language tinkerers keep tinkering, the slow convergence toward Lisp is continuing. Hopefully by the time the convergence is complete it will have brought with it the niceties of its successors: a single standard library, a de facto package manager, and other things that have sharded the various Lisp communities.

aaronblohowiak 15y ago

"I don't understand why people keep making these kinds of languages over and over" -- TJ makes lots of things, from web frameworks to template engines and css DSLs, to see him make a language makes me think: "ooh, TJ made a new toy!" As far as does the world need it? That is a hard question to answer. Will it achieve mass adoption? My money is on no -- another question is: How long will TJ keep at it?

tjholowaychuk 15y ago
yeah, I'm really expecting it to be widely adopted, it's just a fun project to hack on in spare time and share some thoughts.
- aaronblohowiak 15y ago
  Sweet! I love seeing your thoughts come to fruition in the language design, and how you compare your syntax and semantic choices to ruby and js. Congrats!
- unwind 15y ago
  Missing a "not"?
  - tjholowaychuk 15y ago
    haha yikes, yeah my bad, not expecting..

zem 15y ago

the problem this seems to be solving is that everyone decides to "discuss implementation performance later", i.e. never.

alnayyir 15y ago
You're not familiar with Mike Pall I take it?
- zem 15y ago
  that's more the exception than the rule. i think it's a good sign that luna put performance first.

yxhuvud 15y ago

People keep playing with the syntax because there are still low hanging fruit to pick when it comes to syntax improvements. This one seems really nice to me - I really like : as function keyword and the implications it has.

tjholowaychuk 15y ago

Because it's fun :) Nothing is set in stone, it's just a playground for now.

jdp 15y ago

Let language tinkerers keep tinkering, the slow convergence toward Lisp is continuing. Hopefully by the time the convergence is complete it will have brought with it the niceties of its successors: a single standard library, a de facto package manager, and other things that have sharded the various Lisp communities.