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A comment on Lisp: a cult I almost joined (2005). Parent comment

Re:Lisp: a cult I almost joined (2005) by dexen on Friday March 25, 2011 @10:05AM (#2368471)
> instead lisp is still the language that it was 50 years ago.

I beg you to differ. The original, McCarthy Lisp was a succinct, powerful, flexible, dynamic language based on a small set of axioms.

Through times, a lot has been thrown out for sake of performance (which was understood to require compilation). Um, well, in case of Lisp, it means a lot of cruft has been added (some say, bolted onto) -- the simplicity etc.etc. was lost. Those days functions aren't even lists anymore, and scoping is lexical!

With a few notable exceptions. Which are either hold-outs, or back-to-the-roots/back-to-what-worked-better efforts.

Arc is closer to the original Lisp. Also, is more pleasing to use. Not a coincidence.

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Re:Lisp: a cult I almost joined (2005) by pavelludiq on Friday March 25, 2011 @11:03AM (#2368733)
People keep saying that but i don't get it. Can you give me an example of the cruft you are talking about? Its one of those other myths i keep hearing about our cult.

p.s. Arc is more pleasing to use to you, I would certainly not choose it over common lisp or clojure, but maybe over scheme.

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