Lisp Redeemed?
October 29th, 2006Well, long long ago, Reddit used to run on Lisp. Unfortunately, due to some problems with working setup, they had to move to Python, after which a huge brou-ha-ha followed. Just do a google search, and you will find it. Somebody recently asked on c.l.l as to why the switch happend at all. Steve Huffman (one of the Reddit guys) says so:
“Python drives me nuts, and I miss Lisp, but I’m not the only
person working on reddit, so we use what we can collectively use best.”
Sigh. Yeah. I understand what he is feeling. Lisp kinda grows on you. You can just drop any other programming language you picked up and move on to others, but there’s something about Lisp that you will always miss in others. “Quality without a name”?
Yes, I do think so. There are somethings in life which have that. For me, a BMW car has that (a Merc is somehow too flashy for my taste), so does Emacs (am I mixing metaphors too randomly?) and so do some of the retail stores I admire. They somehow get the right mix of elegance, functionality and price. And it becomes irresistibly appealing.