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> lisp is still a tiny niche in the programming world You could look at this the other way and be impressed how much Lisps are still used despite being many de
by chimprich 4y ago
> lisp is still a tiny niche in the programming world
You could look at this the other way and be impressed how much Lisps are still used despite being many decades old and all the pressures from other languages.
> Is this because programmers are just slow to catch on to superior technology or because infinite malleability is not that helpful in actually building shipping software?
I think a lot of it is momentum / fashion / network effect or whatever you want to call it. I've done some work with Lisp in the past and loved it, but I struggle to justify spending time on it.
From a corporate level, if you decide to go with Lisp, then you are significantly limiting the pool of available engineers and libraries etc. you can choose from. Whereas if you go with Python then you get a language that is a bit less elegant but close enough in flexibility most of the time, plus a vast ecosystem of resources and expertise to draw from.
On a personal level it's similar; Lisp isn't exactly a drawback on your CV, but there's an opportunity cost. There's usually something else to prioritise that will make you more attractive.