Super-dee-duper D features

[Andrei Alexandrescu (See Website For Email)]

Pragma wrote:
> 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?

Hard to define a tree otherwise :o).

But I do agree with your point.

Andrei