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The thing about Common Lisp is, code doesn't rot. It doesn't matter if CL code is 5 years old or 30, it runs. I have yet to see even one ounce of bit rot. CL

The thing about Common Lisp is, code doesn't rot. It doesn't matter if CL code is 5 years old or 30, it runs. I have yet to see even one ounce of bit rot. CL code is as eternal as solid gold, honestly. And sometimes, yes, there's a few ways your code will fail to run, mostly because you're shooting yourself in the foot (eg starting slime in a different directory than what you're meant to). Versus Python, I didn't even get to use Python 2 before I started getting nagged and harangued by various exceptions in the terminal about how I had to migrate to Python 3. And it depends what you're doing with CL, how well it works for you. As an algorithm designer, I use literally no libraries. I don't glue anything to anything. I just use the batteries that come included with Common Lisp (SBCL is great), forget about connecting to the internet, forget I/O, forget graphics and GUIs and OOP, and just focus on coming up with as many ideas as I can per minute, until I crack the algorithmic problem. Just with the austere tools that come included in SBCL: xor (#'logxor), popcount (#'logcount), #'sort, #'svref, #'pop, #'push, #'make-array, #'dotimes, 'lambda, 'labels, 'let, 'do, the basics.

tmm84 5y ago
I can't think of any code rot either. As long as it is built against the standard it tends to just work. I also find the idea of using no libraries a big thing in more advanced users of CL. The more advanced of a user the more it makes sense that you can just implement it yourself (with only the functionality required) and know it works without having to leverage a library. Then again, the idea of CL is that things that tend to be bigger/harder to solve problems in other languages can be done simpler in CL because you can break the problem up different and have an easier to understand or implement solution.

tmm84 5y ago

I can't think of any code rot either. As long as it is built against the standard it tends to just work. I also find the idea of using no libraries a big thing in more advanced users of CL. The more advanced of a user the more it makes sense that you can just implement it yourself (with only the functionality required) and know it works without having to leverage a library. Then again, the idea of CL is that things that tend to be bigger/harder to solve problems in other languages can be done simpler in CL because you can break the problem up different and have an easier to understand or implement solution.