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0 pointslispm12y ago0 comments

Lisp has had widely different uses:

* a teaching language

* a research tool

* an application programming language

Lisp has been already in times when the technology you are using today was still under invention. Lisp existed before Smalltalk, C, C++, Java, ... thus often technology was developed in an unstable surrounding where inventions are just being made. Lisp also had to keep track of the changing IT landscape. During the 70s people were using DEC PDP computers.

Thus you find evidence for everything.

There are well-documented stable, nicely reusable, code bases in Lisp.

Clojure is most of the time married to a small eco-system: Java/JVM.

Lisp has seen and supported many more eco-systems and will see even more in the future.

0 pointslispm12y ago0 comments

Lisp has had widely different uses:

* a teaching language

* a research tool

* an application programming language

Thus you find evidence for everything.

There are well-documented stable, nicely reusable, code bases in Lisp.

Clojure is most of the time married to a small eco-system: Java/JVM.

Lisp has seen and supported many more eco-systems and will see even more in the future.

0 comments

5 comments · 2 top-level

pjmlp12y ago· 3 in thread

As a language geek, I tend to hunt the Internet for old papers and manuals related to OS and languages.

The actual mainstream situation could be so different if the Xerox PARC research in terms of programming languages and OS besides the GUI, had become mainstream instead of the AT&T ones.

The Interlisp, Smalltalk and Mesa systems were great computing platforms compared with what UNIX offered.

agumonkey12y ago

I tend to believe that with time, good genes that were previously trimmed for very pragmatic reasons, will reappear in more favorable contexts and spread.

lispmOP12y ago

Still Lisp was on Unix on day two and was always a very popular platform for Lisp developers.

You could even get Lisp Machines from TI with embedded Unix and Lisp Machines from TI and Symbolics which were embedded in Unix.

Several Lisp companies made their entire business from Unix: Lucid, early Franz, early Harlequin/LispWorks, ...

pjmlp12y ago

It might be, but I imagine having an OS where Lisp is the systems programming language is way different from a system where it is just another language.

1 more reply

Mikera12y ago

I don't think you can credibly describe Java/JVM as a small ecosystem.... there's nothing else remotely close in terms of the combination of runtime platform capabilities and the number of available open source libraries.

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