297: Lisp Cycles - Revision history

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2022-05-04T21:03:38Z

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Ex Kay Cee Dee at 21:00, 4 May 2022

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Ex Kay Cee Dee at 20:54, 4 May 2022

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Davidy22: Reverted edits by X. K. C. D. (talk) to last revision by Donthaveusername

2022-05-04T01:58:48Z

Reverted edits by X. K. C. D. (talk) to last revision by Donthaveusername

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X. K. C. D. at 00:59, 4 May 2022

2022-05-04T00:59:07Z

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Donthaveusername: /* Explan ation */

2020-09-24T19:46:50Z

‎Explan ation

Donthaveusername: /* Explanation */

2020-09-24T19:46:36Z

‎Explanation

DPS2004: /* Explanation */ added wikipedia link

2019-08-24T12:46:27Z

‎Explanation: added wikipedia link

Lupo: /* Explanation */ removed unneccessary duplicated information was hardly understandble for non experts, and was just inserted nonsensical in the middle of the explanation.

2019-04-22T10:50:31Z

‎Explanation: removed unneccessary duplicated information was hardly understandble for non experts, and was just inserted nonsensical in the middle of the explanation.

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 }}
-==Explan ation==
+==Explanation==
 {{W|Lisp (programming language)|Lisp}} is one of the oldest {{W|High-level programming language|high level programming languages}}. Despite being significantly ahead of its time, it never got enough traction outside of academia, and has never been widely used. However, it is considered to be a very powerful language even in the present day. [https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lisp_programming_language Quotations regarding Lisp] show that several big names in computer science and the tech industry hold Lisp in very high esteem. {{W|Eric S. Raymond}} goes as far as to say

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 }}
-==Explanation==
+==Explan ation==
 {{W|Lisp (programming language)|Lisp}} is one of the oldest {{W|High-level programming language|high level programming languages}}. Despite being significantly ahead of its time, it never got enough traction outside of academia, and has never been widely used. However, it is considered to be a very powerful language even in the present day. [https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lisp_programming_language Quotations regarding Lisp] show that several big names in computer science and the tech industry hold Lisp in very high esteem. {{W|Eric S. Raymond}} goes as far as to say

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 <blockquote>Lisp is worth learning for the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it; that experience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually use Lisp itself a lot.</blockquote>
-Lisp is also famous for its use of fully parenthesized Polish prefix notation. As a result, Lisp programs take the form of enormous nested lists bounded by parentheses, and it is not uncommon to see the source code of a large Lisp program close off with an equally enormous stack of close-parens, representing the simultaneous termination of dozens of recursively and hierarchically nested functional and procedural structures.
+Lisp is also famous for its use of fully parenthesized {{W|Polish notation|Polish prefix notation}}. As a result, Lisp programs take the form of enormous nested lists bounded by parentheses, and it is not uncommon to see the source code of a large Lisp program close off with an equally enormous stack of close-parens, representing the simultaneous termination of dozens of recursively and hierarchically nested functional and procedural structures.
 In the first panel, [[Cueball]] praises Lisp, observing that no other language can match the awe that it still strikes despite its significant seniority.

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:50, 22 April 2019
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	In the second panel, Cueball proposes that new programmers might continue to learn Lisp forever; despite the language's lack of widespread adoption, a small cadre of hackers will always exist who keep the language alive.		In the second panel, Cueball proposes that new programmers might continue to learn Lisp forever; despite the language's lack of widespread adoption, a small cadre of hackers will always exist who keep the language alive.
−
−	~~First, a little background:~~
−
−	Lisp was once the lingua franca of the frontier of computer science research at places like {{w\|MIT_AI_Lab\|MIT's Project MAC}} and {{w\|Stanford_University_centers_and institutes#Stanford_Artificial_Intelligence_Laboratory\|SAIL}}, and is still highly relevant in academic and theoretical computer science, despite the subsequent emergence of many other {{w\|functional programming language\|highly functional research languages}}. That many of these venerable research institutions have vanished or declined, their faculties having split up or moved into the private sector, and the advanced and demanding course-work taught there using Lisp having been replaced by courses based around teaching languages-of-the-day (such as Java, Python, Ruby, and even JavaScript for web design) in a series of so-called {{w\|AI Winter}}s is a widely remarked upon feature of history. To many, this conjures a nostalgic impression of the halcyon days of advanced computer research when funding for blue-sky exploratory coding was plentiful, and most of the features of the contemporary digital world were first thought up and made real by wizardly hackers (the well-known purple cover of one venerated Lisp textbook is especially evocative, featuring a renaissance woodcut illustration of a sorcerous natural philosopher conjuring up magic with Lisp symbols superimposed into the image).
−
−	Throughout all this, Lisp, one of the first and greatest successes of theoretical computer science, has persisted, still in general though no-longer-universal use within the warrens of programming language and computability research, still studied by handfuls of students interested in something more than simply getting a job as a code grinder for Big Data, its features still inspiring generations of new language designers and implementers to ''do better'' ({{w\|Ruby (programming language)\|Ruby}} was designed — according to his admission — by Matsumoto Yukihiro as "a bad rip-off of Lisp" that would be "nicer to ordinary people;" {{w\|Java (programming language)\|Java 8}} introduced lambdas — ''in 2014!''). David Thornley even noted that whether or not Lisp was a "dead" or moribund programming language is, in fact, a question older than almost all programming languages, and has been for decades.

	The third panel references ''{{w\|Star Wars (film)\|Star Wars}}.'' The "old wizard" Obi-Wan Kenobi, who remembers the culture and sophistication of the Old Republic ("Before the dark times. Before the Empire.") and lives as a hermit in the desert at the beginning of the film spoke these lines when passing on a lightsaber to Luke Skywalker:		The third panel references ''{{w\|Star Wars (film)\|Star Wars}}.'' The "old wizard" Obi-Wan Kenobi, who remembers the culture and sophistication of the Old Republic ("Before the dark times. Before the Empire.") and lives as a hermit in the desert at the beginning of the film spoke these lines when passing on a lightsaber to Luke Skywalker: