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> But, it turns out, it basically isn't. In the Lisp world there is a tremendous consensus about it; nearly everyone does it in nearly an identical way to every

by xscott 4y ago

> But, it turns out, it basically isn't. In the Lisp world there is a tremendous consensus about it; nearly everyone does it in nearly an identical way to everyone else. Yes, and that's self selecting. If someone hates that style, that might be one reason they don't stick around in the Lisp world. Besides, something being a consensus has little to say about whether it's an opinion or not. > Even if you might not like the particular way it is done, the dogged consistency has to count for something. Lol, no! Just like consensus, consistency isn't a virtue on its own. You could be consistently doing it wrong. :-)

lispm 4y ago
>Yes, and that's self selecting. No, people could just use their style. We've seen that in some subgroups. Often for example with AutoCAD users scripting in AutoLisp / VisualLisp. > consistency isn't a virtue on its own. You could be consistently doing it wrong. :-) Consistency is a virtue on its own. Consistent coding standards improve readability for a wider group, even if the coding standard would be slightly less optimal according to some other metrics.
- xscott 4y ago
  Helping people cooperate is a virtue. You're confusing the means with the ends, and it's very likely that the OP I first responded to above does not find the Lisp-consistent style very readable, so it didn't enable his cooperation. They made a point of saying, "I can look at blurry C code and know generally what things are and what’s going on without a single character being legible." That sure seems like their problem with Lisp is layout/formatting.
  - kazinator 4y ago
    > Helping people cooperate is a virtue. Oh, is that what you're doing?
  - lispm 4y ago
    > it's very likely that the OP I first responded to above does not find the Lisp-consistent style very readable, so it didn't enable his cooperation. I can't find that in his post.
    - xscott 4y ago
      He wrote: "I can look at blurry C code and know generally what things are and what’s going on without a single character being legible. Lisps don’t typically have the same convenience"

by xscott 4y ago

lispm 4y ago

>Yes, and that's self selecting. No, people could just use their style. We've seen that in some subgroups. Often for example with AutoCAD users scripting in AutoLisp / VisualLisp. > consistency isn't a virtue on its own. You could be consistently doing it wrong. :-) Consistency is a virtue on its own. Consistent coding standards improve readability for a wider group, even if the coding standard would be slightly less optimal according to some other metrics.

xscott 4y ago
Helping people cooperate is a virtue. You're confusing the means with the ends, and it's very likely that the OP I first responded to above does not find the Lisp-consistent style very readable, so it didn't enable his cooperation. They made a point of saying, "I can look at blurry C code and know generally what things are and what’s going on without a single character being legible." That sure seems like their problem with Lisp is layout/formatting.
- kazinator 4y ago
  > Helping people cooperate is a virtue. Oh, is that what you're doing?
- lispm 4y ago
  > it's very likely that the OP I first responded to above does not find the Lisp-consistent style very readable, so it didn't enable his cooperation. I can't find that in his post.
  - xscott 4y ago
    He wrote: "I can look at blurry C code and know generally what things are and what’s going on without a single character being legible. Lisps don’t typically have the same convenience"