For many years I sought “the perfect programming language”. Traveling aim-fully from language to language, I found that there are a number of aspects to enjoy when it comes to a particular programming language, but I never found one that was “just right”.
During that journey, I started out as a slave to syntax. I had to “like” the syntax. Even when I found a syntax I liked, I would find that the language would be too narrowly-focused. Most general-purpose languages force you to shoe-horn your solution to a problem into how the language creator wants you to solve it. Most programmers hate being forced to do anything; especially how to think.
Eventually I realized that there is no “perfect programming language”. Perhaps, though, there is a language that is “good enough”.
A lot of folks love the programming language Lisp. It provides all of the core language features you could ever need. On top of that, it lets you tailor the syntax to your pleasure.
From what I know about Lisp, it is “good enough”, and in the world programming languages, that is probably just about the best compliment you could give any language.
Tag: Lisp
Assembly and Lisp
What is the connection? Find out here.
C Sharp and Lisp
Maybe one reason why people love C# so much is that it was influenced by Lisp?
Stranger things have happened.
R6RS can complete with Common Lisp?
R6RS is the new language specification for Scheme. The goal is to provide programming features that folks need for programming “in the large”.
Can it compete with Common Lisp? I don’t think so. I like to think of R6RS as an experiment.
I might be right; I might be wrong.
Shlisp
Shlisp is a Lisp without lists!
On Python and Lisp
The last time I spoke to a friend of mine who knows both Scheme and Common Lisp (among many other programming languages), his current language of choice was Python. More or less, he said that it just “feels right” (I need to pick his brain more on this).
Is Lisp the future of Python? Do Lispers gravitate towards Python? I’m not sure yet, but this paper aims to shed some light on both of those questions.
Clojure: A Lisp like language on the JVM
Clojure is a Lisp like language built especially to run on the JVM. After perusing the language rationale and features, it is pretty clear that anyone interested in multi-paradigm programming on the JVM would have a great time digging deeper in to Clojure!
Lispers Know Modern Languages
From Dan Bensen on comp.lang.lisp:
Lispers know tons of modern languages. We invent a new one every time we write another application.
Caveats of Object Creation using Closures
At one time or another you have probably heard the claim made that since you can utilize closures while programming in Lisp, there is no need to utilize an object system. That claim is sort of a half-truth. While closures are the language construct that allow you to create objects, they certainly don’t provide you with all of the object oriented programming language features that you would expect. Instead, you need to implement those features yourself.
The question was posed on the PLT discussion list. Some very good points were made about the issues you must address when implementing such an object system yourself, along with a pointer detailing how the issues are addressed in PLT Scheme.
Dick Gabriel on Lisp
A while back I listened to an interview that Software Engineering Radio did with Richard P. Gabriel.
Gabriel is well spoken, has a valuable historical perspective, and the interview has a lot of interesting bits that folks new to Lisp may never before have heard.