8 ms·

Really? What has improved in Common Lisp in the past two years? Thanks for this comment.

mahmud 17y ago
In the last two years? Clozure Common Lisp at least: an open source multithreaded Lisp implementation with unicode on Win32. Before then it was all Unix. Lisp platform independence is so good, I hack on win32 all day and when I am ready to deploy on Linux, the only warning I get is from git telling me it's converting line endings to Unix style. The staggering number of new and maturing infrastructure libraries; bordeaux-threads, usocket, CFFI, ASDF, Closure family of XML tools, etc. Lisp-World interop has become trivial. It's not their existence that's new, but their universal adoption by the community. Few years ago you couldn't just download a random lisp library and expect it to work; you had to read the sources and figure things out. Now dependency libraries get downloaded behind the scenes.
- herdrick 17y ago
  * Few years ago you couldn't just download a random lisp library and expect it to work * Yeah, that was my painful experience as a noob. Now dependency libraries get downloaded behind the scenes. You mean ASDF takes care of dependencies for you?
  - aerique 17y ago
    She might be talking about clbuild.
    - atamyrat 17y ago
      Mahmud is a boy's name.
      - mahmud 17y ago
        It could also be a man's name. teshekkur adamyrat ;-)
        aerique 17y ago
        Sorry :-) It's just that I wrongly thought you had referred to yourself as a female in an earlier post.
- lisper 17y ago
  I have to second this. I switched from CL to Python years ago because of problems with the infrastructure, but now I'm in the process of switching back, largely due to Clozure becoming really ready for prime time, and tremendous improvements in the stability and usability of available libraries. The situation is still not perfect, but it vastly improved and getting better all the time.
  - kirubakaran 17y ago
    Are you Erann? http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/6f75cfb5a289d3f6?pli=1 http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/6f75cfb5a2...
    - zandorg 17y ago
      AKA (also known as) Ron Garret.
- nearestneighbor 17y ago
  It's funny, when I googled "Clozure CL" I got: An open-sourced Common Lisp implementation for LinuxPPC. and didn't look at it again. If you are using OSX/Linux anyway, is Clozure CL useful (considering you we already got CMUCL/SBCL)?
  - aerique 17y ago
    CCL is supposed to have nice bridge to Objective-C and Cocoa on OS X. It also compiles very fast compared to SBCL and supports threading on Windows (which SBCL does not).
- sandGorgon 17y ago
  As a beginner to lisp, I have always been bothered by the lack of standardization - especially in terms of libraries. For example, a couple of weeks back, there was an article about a python-based tool on HN (I forget which). There was a lot of opinion, however was generally about BeautifulSoup vs lxml. Coming to CL, I dont even know where to begin for XML parsing (http://www.cliki.net/XML http://www.cliki.net/XML). Which is why, it seems like black magic when people make amazing software (quantz, postabon) . I just get too intimidated on where to begin... it is similar to the javascript library fights that keep erupting on comp.lang.js : you ask about one and are made to feel like you should have chosen another.
  - aerique 17y ago
    As a beginner just grab the XML lib which is easiest to install and looks comfortable to use. If it doesn't work out try another one. I really don't get all the complaints in this thread about the lack of a central library repository. How hard is it to use Google? Libraries aren't suddenly bad because they're not from Lib Grand Central. In other languages, Perl specifically, I've tried libraries from CPAN that were total shit and then I googled around and grabbed a better one from someone's homepage.
    - telemachos 17y ago
      Perhaps it's possible to get lucky and find good libraries using nothing but Google and patience, but I'm baffled that anyone would deny the value of something like CPAN. CPAN's structure enforces good practices: (e.g., tests, docs, bug tracking). CPAN provides not one but two excellent search pages. It also contains many reviews, and makes it trivial to see the source of any library or app before you download it. CPAN helps enable sprawling, group-built libraries (Catalyst, Moose, DateTime). CPAN has a whole mini-network of related sites that provide secondary help (installation testing and reports, annotation for docs from users, etc.). I really don't get what you don't get. It's obvious to me why a good centralized library repository is a win for any language.
      - sandGorgon 17y ago
- rbanffy 17y ago
  "an open source multithreaded Lisp implementation with unicode on Win32. Before then it was all Unix" I half jokingly fail to see why running on Win32 would be considered an improvement... (Burn, karma, burn!)

In the last two years? Clozure Common Lisp at least: an open source multithreaded Lisp implementation with unicode on Win32. Before then it was all Unix. Lisp platform independence is so good, I hack on win32 all day and when I am ready to deploy on Linux, the only warning I get is from git telling me it's converting line endings to Unix style. The staggering number of new and maturing infrastructure libraries; bordeaux-threads, usocket, CFFI, ASDF, Closure family of XML tools, etc. Lisp-World interop has become trivial. It's not their existence that's new, but their universal adoption by the community. Few years ago you couldn't just download a random lisp library and expect it to work; you had to read the sources and figure things out. Now dependency libraries get downloaded behind the scenes.

herdrick 17y ago
* Few years ago you couldn't just download a random lisp library and expect it to work * Yeah, that was my painful experience as a noob. Now dependency libraries get downloaded behind the scenes. You mean ASDF takes care of dependencies for you?
- aerique 17y ago
  She might be talking about clbuild.
  - atamyrat 17y ago
    Mahmud is a boy's name.
    - mahmud 17y ago
      It could also be a man's name. teshekkur adamyrat ;-)
      - aerique 17y ago
        Sorry :-) It's just that I wrongly thought you had referred to yourself as a female in an earlier post.
lisper 17y ago
I have to second this. I switched from CL to Python years ago because of problems with the infrastructure, but now I'm in the process of switching back, largely due to Clozure becoming really ready for prime time, and tremendous improvements in the stability and usability of available libraries. The situation is still not perfect, but it vastly improved and getting better all the time.
- kirubakaran 17y ago
  Are you Erann? http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/6f75cfb5a289d3f6?pli=1 http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/6f75cfb5a2...
  - zandorg 17y ago
    AKA (also known as) Ron Garret.
nearestneighbor 17y ago
It's funny, when I googled "Clozure CL" I got: An open-sourced Common Lisp implementation for LinuxPPC. and didn't look at it again. If you are using OSX/Linux anyway, is Clozure CL useful (considering you we already got CMUCL/SBCL)?
- aerique 17y ago
  CCL is supposed to have nice bridge to Objective-C and Cocoa on OS X. It also compiles very fast compared to SBCL and supports threading on Windows (which SBCL does not).
sandGorgon 17y ago
As a beginner to lisp, I have always been bothered by the lack of standardization - especially in terms of libraries. For example, a couple of weeks back, there was an article about a python-based tool on HN (I forget which). There was a lot of opinion, however was generally about BeautifulSoup vs lxml. Coming to CL, I dont even know where to begin for XML parsing (http://www.cliki.net/XML http://www.cliki.net/XML). Which is why, it seems like black magic when people make amazing software (quantz, postabon) . I just get too intimidated on where to begin... it is similar to the javascript library fights that keep erupting on comp.lang.js : you ask about one and are made to feel like you should have chosen another.
- aerique 17y ago
  As a beginner just grab the XML lib which is easiest to install and looks comfortable to use. If it doesn't work out try another one. I really don't get all the complaints in this thread about the lack of a central library repository. How hard is it to use Google? Libraries aren't suddenly bad because they're not from Lib Grand Central. In other languages, Perl specifically, I've tried libraries from CPAN that were total shit and then I googled around and grabbed a better one from someone's homepage.
  - telemachos 17y ago
    Perhaps it's possible to get lucky and find good libraries using nothing but Google and patience, but I'm baffled that anyone would deny the value of something like CPAN. CPAN's structure enforces good practices: (e.g., tests, docs, bug tracking). CPAN provides not one but two excellent search pages. It also contains many reviews, and makes it trivial to see the source of any library or app before you download it. CPAN helps enable sprawling, group-built libraries (Catalyst, Moose, DateTime). CPAN has a whole mini-network of related sites that provide secondary help (installation testing and reports, annotation for docs from users, etc.). I really don't get what you don't get. It's obvious to me why a good centralized library repository is a win for any language.
    - sandGorgon 17y ago
rbanffy 17y ago
"an open source multithreaded Lisp implementation with unicode on Win32. Before then it was all Unix" I half jokingly fail to see why running on Win32 would be considered an improvement... (Burn, karma, burn!)