4 ms·
What's magical about it?
by GuiA 12y ago
What's magical about it?
- JoshTriplett 12y agoI'm wondering the same thing. I dug through the entire repository, and I didn't see any references to "magical" properties.
- andrewchambers 12y agoDid you look through the rpython codebase too? Thats where the real magic is.
- drtse4 12y agoThe magical lack of documentation?
- nsmartt 12y agoThere are 61 commits and only one contributor. This isn't a good complaint, and the snark makes it worse.
- fab13n 12y agoThe snark wasn't necessary indeed, and as an early-stage project, lacking documentation is understandable. As an HN post however, if you tease us with "magical features" in the title, I'd expect to have the magic shown to me in the linked page, or at the very least in the top comment. I shouldn't have to grok the sources to figure it out.
- emidln 12y agoSubmitter here, I went with name of project + github title rather than editorialize.
- drtse4 12y agoThanks, i already noticed the age of the project :). The ""complaint"" is obviously valid, i'd add at least half a page of examples to explain what it does and how to try it, just to increase the chance of contribution. No snarkiness was intended... but looks like it came out that way.
- nsmartt 12y agoI didn't take your use of “documentation” to be so loose, but I agree that it should have an explanation for the use of “magical” in the title. The author has since added an explanation.
- andrewchambers 12y agoDid you even read the readme? He clearly says hes changing a bunch of stuff and doesn't think outside people can contribute much yet.
- drtse4 12y agoNext time, don't hit reply.
- 616c 12y agoWell judging from the description, "native" actually means writing it in RPython (a "restricted" Python with types for use in the PyPy Project for static analysis and speeding things up[0]) and then compiling it down using PyPy (I am guessing on the second part). That could be neat, the HyLang people (Lisp written in vanilla CPython Python; I think no C extensions AFAIK). [0] http://pypy.readthedocs.org/en/latest/coding-guide.html#id1 http://pypy.readthedocs.org/en/latest/coding-guide.html#id1
- dTal 12y agoHy isn't a full Lisp interpreter in Python, it's an s-expression to Python AST parser, which means it does everything Python does (including C extensions) at essentially native speed anyway - you can even write RPython in it. If you ask me, full Python interop makes Hy the most practical s-expression language today.
- JasonFruit 12y agoOne problem with Hy for me is that it keeps Python scoping, either global or function; that doesn't feel natural to me in a Lisp, and it gets in my way. If it weren't for that and a few similar matters, I'd agree with you on Hy's practicality; as it is, I'd give my nod to Clojure.
- _halgari 12y agoAdded a few comments in the README about that.
- daveloyall 12y agoPixie implements its own virtual machine. Isn't that how all the tiny lisps do it? :) You know, maybe 'magic' simply sets the bar higher than the project is prepared to support. Consider 'clever'.
- andrewchambers 12y agoUmm, I don't think you understand fully what it is. it is using rpython which is a meta tracing jit. pretty magic if you read about it.