The Larch Environment

Re:The Larch Environment by seanmcdirmid on Saturday September 20, 2014 @10:49PM (#8346153)

ESR knows nothing about painters. The painter knows there is never a "best" brush, just different ones. Painters often thrive creatively via constraints, and so the uber brush would actually be unwanted anyways. But I don't see what is relevant here.

There are plenty of languages that have received lots of praise but little use. Erm, Haskell anyone? And you really have to clarify what "use" means, because Lisp is definitely used. Again, I see no relevance.

My comment on "worse is better", it is also Lisp oriented (well, more specifically CLOS). You should look it up.

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Re:The Larch Environment by noblethrasher on Monday September 22, 2014 @03:12AM (#8349584)

Actually, the quote is from Paul Graham, who does happen to know a little about painters, being one himself. Also, he wasn't claiming that Lisp is the "best" brush, only that it is analogous to a brush that will make you a better painter… somehow.

Interestingly, the "other big Lisp advocate" just happens to also advance the idea that programming against constraints is good for the same reason you mention, except that he used examples of famous composers rather than painters since he's a musician himself[1].

[1] http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Design-Composition-Perfor...

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Re:The Larch Environment by sitkack on Sunday September 21, 2014 @11:05AM (#8347313)

When I think of worse is better, I think of Linux, MySQL, Hadoop, PHP and Windows 3.1/95. Even the original Volkswagen is a worse is better car.

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