Some thoughts about raising the profile of Lisp

[liam_on_linux]

I must be mellowing in my old age (possibly as opposed to bellowing) because I have been getting praise and compliments recently on comments in various places.

Don't worry, there are still people angrily shouting at me as well.

This was the earlier comment, I think... There was a slightly forlorn comment in the Reddit Lisp community, talking

Comments

[waistcoatmark]

Did you read about this https://lwn.net/Articles/832311/ (RMS's response to someone discussing updating emacs UI)

[liam_on_linux]

I hadn't. Interesting read; thanks

How about just stealing the best bits and moving it to SBCL?

[anonymous]

How will you know what the best bits are, until you've tried to use it to actually build something?

Re: How about just stealing the best bits and moving it to SBCL?

[liam_on_linux]

If you need to _use_ it to learn it then the battle is lost before you begin.

I already know how to program. I already know how to edit text, in about 50 different editors.

If someone's new language needs me to use a specific editor, then no, I won't even try. I have 35-year-old preferences already. If that editor doesn't use the universal common UI, then no.

Lisp people in my experience tend to be absolutists, and markedly poor at understanding that other people have strong preferences of their own and that it is _necessary_ to be able to work with others' ways.

I can't offhand think of any other mainstream programming language that _requires_ you to use a specific editor and that editor is wildly nonstandard.

I am fully aware of the historical reasons why; I do not accept them. The world has moved on. Those who refuse to move with it are doomed.

Interlisp, Genera, and the Old Ways

[anonymous]

Some people find the One True GUI Way annoying, and are even more annoyed that it's all you can get.

Distinguish between Interlisp, the language, and Medley, the programming environment. Medley also supports a CL called Xerox Common Lisp, which has one major problem: it's CLtL1+ rather than ANSI, and when that gets fixed, then "develop on Medley, deploy on SBCL" will make a ton of sense. I have also had a bit of thought around implementing the Interlisp language (in which the Medley tools are written) in SBCL, which would give a huge boost in performance (though it doesn't matter that much given the 1000X hardware speedup since the D-machines were built.

There is nothing *illegal* about running OpenGenera today. At most you could be sued by the copyright owner.

Re: Interlisp, Genera, and the Old Ways

[liam_on_linux]

> Some people find the One True GUI Way annoying, and are even more annoyed that it's all you