Super-dee-duper D features

Pragma ericanderton at yahoo.removeme.com
Mon Feb 12 13:23:41 PST 2007


Andrei Alexandrescu (See Website For Email) wrote:
> Bill Baxter wrote:
>> Walter Bright wrote:
>>> kris wrote:
>>
>>>>> 5) Lisp gets things right, according to what I've read from heavy 
>>>>> Lisp users, by being a language that can be modified on the fly to 
>>>>> suit the task at hand, in other words, by having a customizable 
>>>>> language one can achieve dramatic productivity gains.
>>>>
>>>> Yet, Lisp will always remain a niche language. You have to wonder why.
>>>
>>> I'm pretty sure it's the syntax.
>>
>> And the recursion.
>> People just don't naturally think recursively.
>>
>> And the lack of mutable data structures.
>> OCaml tried to fix that, but OCaml's probably always going to be niche 
>> as well (see first point).
> 
> LISP does have mutation. Besides, many people naturally think 
> recursively, and many problems (e.g. parsing) can be easiest thought of 
> that way.
> 
> Andrei

One nit: I agree with Walter here.  People do *not* "naturally think recursively".  Computer Scientists, most 
definitely. Developers, likely.  People who make Russian dolls for a living, perhaps.  Normal people, not a chance.  I'd 
argue that most folks can't even spell the word, much less know what it means.

Proof?  Well, how many people go about defining things in terms of the very things they're trying to define?

-- 
- EricAnderton at yahoo



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