2 Nov
2011
2 Nov
'11
7:53 p.m.
On 02/11/11 9:55 PM, Liam Proven wrote:
On 3 November 2011 01:02, Toby Thain<toby at
telegraphics.com.au> wrote:
As hyperbole, it's useless; and what truth can it contain that wouldn't
be better found by direct experience?
On 02/11/11 1:17 PM, Liam Proven wrote:
Well, this is what I was after. Is it a remotely useful analogy, or is
it ridiculous hyperbole, or is it somewhere in the middle, as in,
there's a grain of truth in there somewhere.
On 31 October 2011 21:31, Andrew Burton<aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
I think that is overstating the case.
Again, I don't see the purpose of the metaphor; they only seem to harden
people's uninformed opinions - the kind of lazy short-circuiting ("You
mentioned Lisp, so let's make a parenthesis joke, even though I haven't ever
written any Lisp" / "Omg Haskell, that monad stuff is craziness, I'll
stick
with PHP thanks" / "Oh no, I can't use Scheme for this, it's TOO
SLOW") that
seems to happen far too often in this business already.
...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Liam Proven"<lproven at gmail.com>
>
> Many thanks! Lots of food for further reading there.
>
> May I ask: what do folk think of the quote I've often seen cited:
>
> * 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.
>
Interesting quote comparing Common Lisp with an anime (Howls Moving
Castle).
The anime is made by one of the legendary studios within the genre
(Studio
Ghibli). So I guess it would be a great complement to the language.
My favourite Subaru is the Imprezza and any sports car has to be driven
in
manual gears to get the most pleasure out of driving it - just don't go
from
5th gear to 1st, whilst at high speed!!!
/Howl's Moving Castle/ is a *novel* by thr late Diana Wynne Jones:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl%27s_Moving_Castle
The book was subsequently adapted into a film by Hayao Miyazaki.
The point of the quote is not the film; it's the eponymous object. In
other words, the Scheme is small and fast and elegant but possibly a
bit too much hard work for some people; that Emacs Lisp may not be
pretty but it gets the job done very well; and that Common Lisp is,
especially by comparison to the other two, impossibly large and
complex and baroque and completely and utterly impractical. I imagine EMACS Lisp is not much use outside of the
context of using
and customising Emacs, for instance - is that fair?
I can only think of one way to find out...
I don't use Emacs. ...
Is there a kernel of truth in the analagy, IOW?
That Scheme is very nice but not much practical use for getting stuff
done; that CL is top-heavy and overcomplicated; that eLisp is all very
well but only good for one thing, say?
This is the kind of rubbish you can read on Reddit or Slashdot comments
any day of the week. Why not form your own opinion?
--Toby