The best way to compare programming languages is by analogy to cars. Lisp is a whole family of languages, and can be broken down approximately as follows:
- Scheme is an exotic sports car. Fast. Manual transmission. No radio.
- Emacs Lisp is a 1984 Subaru GL 4WD: "the car that's always in front of you."
- Common Lisp is Howl's Moving Castle.
Ejacs
So, Steve Yegge went insane and implemented a JavaScript interpreter in Emacs Lisp, and he has some things to say about that. Now, I have to point out that making fun of Emacs Lisp is kind of like kicking a puppy... a puppy who's been dead since 1981. But, at this I lolled:
Tags: computers, emacs, lisp, mad science, movies, retrocomputing
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19 Responses:
Thanks for sharing, I lolled at that too. Nice reference.
I drove one of those '84 Subarus for the longest damned time. The comparison is beautiful :-)
From the comments: 'A little bird told me that Elisp *is* actually being worked on; apparently it's going to grow lexical scoping and coroutines in the foreseeable future.'
As it has been for the last decade or so. A glorious foreseeable future awaits!
Does that mean he'd be Ejaced off?
Don't know anything about emacs, aside from the fact it's a programming language, but the image made me LOL IRL.
I once heard a song that insisted that God wrote the world in Lisp.
I wonder whether the song or the xkcd episode came first? I remember hearing the song several years ago. Not sure when, exactly.
You can find it for purchase or download here: http://www.prometheus-music.com/roundworm.html
The song's been around for a long time. Fucking filkers...
Ah yes, that's the one! I have a copy on my computer already somewhere though.
If God made the world in Lisp, I'm hoping there's still some time before she adds all the missing closing parenthesises.
That is to say, God's probably never typed a right parenthesis and never plans to.
Well maybe we're interactive and/or on a continual loop.
Awesome.
Hee. I think "[Steve Yegge] has some things to say about that" is true in the general case.
1. Write something completely redundant in a language that isn't remotely suited for it, just because you "can".
2. Bitch endlessly about how unsuited the language was for doing such a common, redundant task.
3. Profit.
I'm pretty sure someone's implemented LISP in JavaScript, so yet again we have the opportunity for an infinite regress of emulation/implementation stacks.
I assume he's referring to the castle in the film. In the book, the moving castle was an actual castle, with towers and crenellations and stuff, and floated serenely about a metre above the ground. It was also almost entirely illusory.
I liked the book.
In the book, the moving castle was an actual castle, with towers and crenellations and stuff, and floated serenely about a metre above the ground. It was also almost entirely illusory.
I don't see how that serves any worse as an automotive analogy of Common Lisp.