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0 pointsdschiptsov11y ago0 comments

The key idea is to grow layers of your own DSLs embedded in a Lisp. It is a bottom-up process of growing of a layers of abstractions, similar to building if a house (but, paradoxically, without blueorints) which some people called 'exploratory programming'.

PG in his "On Lisp" book explained this process in details. In some sense, those who never read it cannot claim to be a Lisp programmer.

So, you are not extending the language, you are growing a several new ones (layers) according to the domain at hands.

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dllthomas11y ago· 2 in thread

"In some sense, those who never read it cannot claim to be a Lisp programmer."

Yes, it's well known that - in some sense - there were no Lisp programmers until 1993.

dschiptsovOP11y ago

This is good one!) The insight were there for s long time - DSLs were popularized in SICP and AoMOP, and CL's looping expressions and SETF/GETF are the most famous, but PG is good at concise writing and he walked his talk with the Arc language.)

dllthomas11y ago

Don't get me wrong, I liked On Lisp a lot. I just think it's important to recognize that much of it is a distillation of pre-existing understandings and traditions.

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