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>I've yet to interview anyone that didn't know C or C++ but correctly understood pointers and references. Clearly you haven't interviewed any Lispers. The conc
by heretohelp 14y ago
>I've yet to interview anyone that didn't know C or C++ but correctly understood pointers and references.
Clearly you haven't interviewed any Lispers. The concept is innate to cons cells and how they're constructed.
- tsm 14y agoI think the stock of people who are comfortable with Lisp but know nothing about C has dwindled to be almost non-existent.
- heretohelp 14y agoI sorta know both, but I'm generally more comfortable speaking in terms of Lisp than C and if an interviewer forces me to speak in terms of C I'm likely to be less cogent.
- neutronicus 14y agoThat's an implementation detail that doesn't bear much on actually using the language. The cons cell abstraction leaks sometimes, sure, but I wouldn't say that the concept of "pointer" is fundamental to Lisp at all.
- heretohelp 14y agoUnderstanding that cons cells can point to anything and that the referent not the referrer has a "type" is critical to understanding the language.
- Johngibb 14y agoWorking with pointers in C or C++ is a decidedly lower level construct that Lisp. Not to make any sort of value judgement between the two languages - but with a c pointer, you are accessing a very specific point in memory. If you're pointing to the first element of an array, add one to that pointer, you're now accessing the second element of that array. This close to the metal mindset is what makes C/C++ valuable for learning how code compiles to assembly, and understanding _how_ your program is executed.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]