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Are there any "Why I chose to build my startup around SBCL" stories?

by sgt 4y ago

vzcx 4y ago
Grammarly used SBCL in production: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/engineering/running-lisp-in-production/ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/engineering/running-lisp-in-p... It also sounds like they were very much a polyglot shop.
vindarel 4y ago
Here's a recent one, which leads to a couple more: https://lisp-journey.gitlab.io/blog/lisp-interview-kina/ https://lisp-journey.gitlab.io/blog/lisp-interview-kina/ and to a (non official and growing) list of companies using CL: https://github.com/azzamsa/awesome-lisp-companies/ https://github.com/azzamsa/awesome-lisp-companies/
emptysea 4y ago
The company that google bought for flights (ITA?) was built on SBCL and flights is still written in it. Pretty huge codebase from what I heard
- mepian 4y ago
  If I remember correctly, Google even contributes to SBCL because of that.
wenc 4y ago
Not SBCL, but HN is written in Arc (a Lisp). Circle CI is apparently written in Clojure.
cpeterso 4y ago
The first version of Reddit was written in Common Lisp, but less than a year later, they reluctantly migrated to Python because Python had a bigger library ecosystem: https://web.archive.org/web/20160803061607/http://www.redditblog.com/2005/12/on-lisp.html https://web.archive.org/web/20160803061607/http://www.reddit...
- kazinator 4y ago
  I remember a more nuanced version: - They tried using some commercial Lisp on a platform where it was poorly supported, and were struggling with certain stability issues (I don't remember the details). - A team member came on board who, what do you know, had also authored the Python-based web framework that they were using in the rewrite. Reddit may have been used as the "guinea pig" for improving this web framework.
  - kazinator 4y ago
    Sorry, I misremembered all that. It's hard to find the original information. One of the devs revealed that he was working OpenMCL on a Mac ... but then Reddit was actually running with CMUCL on FreeBSD. (Yes, really!) He couldn't basically even run all of Reddit in the dev environment. (Regarding "commerical Lisp"; that's what some Lisp people were saying should have been given consideration.)
cultofmetatron 4y ago
lisp startups are usually too busy doing unconventional things to advertise what they use. dunno why, just stating an observation
derjames 4y ago
Kandria, Open world RPG: https://reader.tymoon.eu/article/413 https://reader.tymoon.eu/article/413
- dang 4y ago
  Discussed here: Technical overview of Kandria, a game and game engine developed in Common Lisp - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32043026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32043026 - July 2022 (32 comments)
reikonomusha 4y ago
Some quantum computing companies use SBCL, specifically to build optimizing compilers [1], quantum computer control systems, and quantum simulators. [1] https://chromotopy.org/latex/papers/quilc.pdf https://chromotopy.org/latex/papers/quilc.pdf

Are there any "Why I chose to build my startup around SBCL" stories?

by sgt 4y ago

Are there any "Why I chose to build my startup around SBCL" stories?

vzcx 4y ago

Grammarly used SBCL in production: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/engineering/running-lisp-in-production/ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/engineering/running-lisp-in-p... It also sounds like they were very much a polyglot shop.

vindarel 4y ago

Here's a recent one, which leads to a couple more: https://lisp-journey.gitlab.io/blog/lisp-interview-kina/ https://lisp-journey.gitlab.io/blog/lisp-interview-kina/ and to a (non official and growing) list of companies using CL: https://github.com/azzamsa/awesome-lisp-companies/ https://github.com/azzamsa/awesome-lisp-companies/

emptysea 4y ago

The company that google bought for flights (ITA?) was built on SBCL and flights is still written in it. Pretty huge codebase from what I heard

mepian 4y ago
If I remember correctly, Google even contributes to SBCL because of that.

wenc 4y ago

Not SBCL, but HN is written in Arc (a Lisp). Circle CI is apparently written in Clojure.

cpeterso 4y ago

The first version of Reddit was written in Common Lisp, but less than a year later, they reluctantly migrated to Python because Python had a bigger library ecosystem: https://web.archive.org/web/20160803061607/http://www.redditblog.com/2005/12/on-lisp.html https://web.archive.org/web/20160803061607/http://www.reddit...

kazinator 4y ago
I remember a more nuanced version: - They tried using some commercial Lisp on a platform where it was poorly supported, and were struggling with certain stability issues (I don't remember the details). - A team member came on board who, what do you know, had also authored the Python-based web framework that they were using in the rewrite. Reddit may have been used as the "guinea pig" for improving this web framework.
- kazinator 4y ago
  Sorry, I misremembered all that. It's hard to find the original information. One of the devs revealed that he was working OpenMCL on a Mac ... but then Reddit was actually running with CMUCL on FreeBSD. (Yes, really!) He couldn't basically even run all of Reddit in the dev environment. (Regarding "commerical Lisp"; that's what some Lisp people were saying should have been given consideration.)

cultofmetatron 4y ago

lisp startups are usually too busy doing unconventional things to advertise what they use. dunno why, just stating an observation

derjames 4y ago

Kandria, Open world RPG: https://reader.tymoon.eu/article/413 https://reader.tymoon.eu/article/413

dang 4y ago
Discussed here: Technical overview of Kandria, a game and game engine developed in Common Lisp - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32043026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32043026 - July 2022 (32 comments)

reikonomusha 4y ago

Some quantum computing companies use SBCL, specifically to build optimizing compilers [1], quantum computer control systems, and quantum simulators. [1] https://chromotopy.org/latex/papers/quilc.pdf https://chromotopy.org/latex/papers/quilc.pdf