3 ms·
LISP is worth learning for a different reason — the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it. That experience will make you
by apgwoz 18y ago
LISP is worth learning for a different reason — the profound enlightenment
experience you will have when you finally get it. That experience will make
you a better programmer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually
use LISP itself a lot.
This is from "How to Become a Hacker" by Eric Raymond.
However, I think the more correct thing to say would be more on target with what you just mentioned. Functional languages teach you to minimize the mutation of state, which is a really great win in all languages, as your anecdote demonstrates.
- silentbicycle 18y agoScheme would probably be better than Common Lisp -- the design of the language encourages functional programming more. If nothing else, naming functions that mutate state with !s (e.g. set-cdr!) seems like a good convention: it doesn't twist your arm, but it reminds you in a way that stands out.
- apgwoz 18y agoI couldn't agree more. By referring to "LISP," I meant the general family of languages, but really meant Scheme (which I use). Edit: What am I even saying? I didn't mention LISP, it was a quote.