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The Reddit Scandal uncovers the Problems of the Lisp Community

Started by Fred Brunel · 10 months ago

In the last couple of months, there was of lot of writing about Lisp, probably because dynamic languages are gaining popular for web 2.0 apps and also because of Ruby on Rails. Lisp is a real source of inspiration for most dynamic languages creators. But the recent Reddit scandal was like an ear ... Continue reading »

6 comments

  • Frederic Brunel circa 2003

    3 years ago

    Why do you want *another* new stuffs. There is still plenty of unused languages in this world. Did you try Common Lisp? It's a well-designed language and very complete. There is a lot of libraries to do all your day-to-day stuffs!

    Concerning implementations, *all* commercials implementations are well supported and comes with a lot of recent features, like XML, RPC, graphics, GUI, etc...

    Concerning the Common Lisp community, it's really amazing to be able to talk with the masters just about anything about computing. This is an exceptional opportunity to have such experimeted people here!
    This is not the case with, say the Java community.

    Concerning Free implementation, SBCL is a growing one. With a lot of refactoring and a lot of availables features. Working with a Debian system is a plus because every Common Lisp library is packaged within the system.

    My suggestion. Start learning and using Common Lisp.
    reply
  • Fred Brunel

    3 years ago

    Thanks for your comment but I didn't get your point. Don't get me wrong, I'm a user Common Lisp and I'm also a member of a Lisp working group in Bordeaux, France so I know it very well.

    I totally agree with you that there is a lot of valuable material in the community but I'm just saying that some recurrent problems keep plaguing the community and the credibility of Common Lisp.

    The different implementations of the language is one of the issues. The lack of packaging and bad API design of some modules (i.e: ASDF) is another one. Some people like Edi Weitz are very sensitive to these "social" aspects of software and take care of users. As a result, its libraries have all been quickly adopted (i.e: [CL-PPCRE](http://www.weitz.de/cl-ppcre/)) by the community. Other communities understood that for a long time.

    I have big respect for guys behind SBCL and I really hope it will become the open source reference implementation of Common Lisp.

    That said, I also came by another blog post that share my points "[Why Lisp Still Hasn't Won](http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/8721)". These comments should be taken as advices for improving Common Lisp.
    reply
  • Zach Beane

    3 years ago

    I posted it originally under the title "Frederic Brunel circa 2003", and it was taken verbatim from a comp.lang.lisp post by a person named "Frederic Brunel". It was intended to present a humorous contrast between your current skeptical, pessimistic, and critical attitude of 2005 and your happy, optimistic, and happy-go-lucky attitude of 2003. I'm afraid the subsequent edit makes that less clear.
    reply
  • Fred Brunel

    3 years ago

    Aah, now I understand why the post sounds familiar to me! :) But you're right, there is a clear constrast between my opinions.

    In 2003, I though I would see big changes in 2005 and I've spent a lot of time to evangelise Common Lisp all around me. Actually I'm quite dissapointed to see where we stand today and what other communities manage to build in the same time.
    reply
  • Rob Lally

    3 years ago

    Just a small correction Rob Lally ... not Tally.

    Yours,

    Rob Lally
    reply
  • Fred Brunel

    3 years ago

    Sorry about that. I fixed it.

    Thank you.
    reply

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