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Such anger for this question. One good answer (so far) and two unhelpfuls. It’s a good question perhaps asked badly. So I’ll take the liberty of rephrasing. Why

Such anger for this question. One good answer (so far) and two unhelpfuls. It’s a good question perhaps asked badly. So I’ll take the liberty of rephrasing. Why learn lisp today instead of haskell, rust, kotlin, or any of the myriad other languages on offer?

mepian 4y ago
I like this explanation: https://gigamonkeys.com/book/introduction-why-lisp.html https://gigamonkeys.com/book/introduction-why-lisp.html
massysett 4y ago
As someone coming from Haskell and learning Common Lisp, I can say that Lisp just feels mature. It feels well thought out and logical. I can read the entire HyperSpec and it makes sense and it’s precise and there’s not a pile of language extensions. Haskell has inner beauty but the huge warts of something that is newer and more experimental. Partially as a result of all this, Lisp has other things that Haskell lacks, such as good editor support and a great REPL. Haskell editor tooling is awful and although it has a REPL it’s nowhere near as good as Common Lisp’s.
- JoelMcCracken 4y ago
  yeah as a haskeller, there is a LOT that I wish haskell had that was better... if it had taken more of the good ideas from common lisp early on in its evolution, would be in a much better place. I'm looking forward to a replacement; Unison might be it, a lot of its choices are better oriented towards interactive development, but the jury is still out on this. Other candidates imo are lean, agda, roc, verse (this one I heavily doubt), or ghc fixing itself so this discussion is unnecessary. But there is space for a language that cuts out the historical baggage. For a while, I hoped that would be purescript, but I think that unlikely at this point.
JoelMcCracken 4y ago
I don't know that its good to learn it instead of any of those, but its fantastic to learn in addition to. It's just different. I love haskell, but also love lisp. For very different reasons, but they're both delightful expressions of thought.
ForcedPush 4y ago
I saw my question bother more than one person. I was really just trying to understand.
- eschaton 4y ago
  The way it’s phrased can be read as having the implication “Other things are newer or more popular, so why bother?” That may not have been your intent, but this is how it can come across, especially when people have been insincerely asking this question for decades in order to troll or poke fun.

mepian 4y ago

I like this explanation: https://gigamonkeys.com/book/introduction-why-lisp.html https://gigamonkeys.com/book/introduction-why-lisp.html

massysett 4y ago

As someone coming from Haskell and learning Common Lisp, I can say that Lisp just feels mature. It feels well thought out and logical. I can read the entire HyperSpec and it makes sense and it’s precise and there’s not a pile of language extensions. Haskell has inner beauty but the huge warts of something that is newer and more experimental. Partially as a result of all this, Lisp has other things that Haskell lacks, such as good editor support and a great REPL. Haskell editor tooling is awful and although it has a REPL it’s nowhere near as good as Common Lisp’s.

JoelMcCracken 4y ago
yeah as a haskeller, there is a LOT that I wish haskell had that was better... if it had taken more of the good ideas from common lisp early on in its evolution, would be in a much better place. I'm looking forward to a replacement; Unison might be it, a lot of its choices are better oriented towards interactive development, but the jury is still out on this. Other candidates imo are lean, agda, roc, verse (this one I heavily doubt), or ghc fixing itself so this discussion is unnecessary. But there is space for a language that cuts out the historical baggage. For a while, I hoped that would be purescript, but I think that unlikely at this point.

JoelMcCracken 4y ago

I don't know that its good to learn it instead of any of those, but its fantastic to learn in addition to. It's just different. I love haskell, but also love lisp. For very different reasons, but they're both delightful expressions of thought.

ForcedPush 4y ago

I saw my question bother more than one person. I was really just trying to understand.

eschaton 4y ago
The way it’s phrased can be read as having the implication “Other things are newer or more popular, so why bother?” That may not have been your intent, but this is how it can come across, especially when people have been insincerely asking this question for decades in order to troll or poke fun.