Revenge of the nerds

For this article I've found plenty of interesting things, starting with the concept of the “pointy-haired boss”, the one that doesn’t know of technology, but has some specifications based on the popularity of a language or the standardization of the software industry. I liked this concept principally because of the necessity of comprehension from the technologists to the authorities, but not submitting about the thinks that we know for sure, like the importance of the development’s language for a project.

I’ve found some value on the premise that the most modern programming languages slowly are becoming more and more like Lisp, and even when it was, at first, a shocking statement, I’ve realized that it is true. Python, for example, it tending to the simplicity at the expressions and is starting to look like a functional based language (considering that Python wasn’t thought for that), that doesn’t happen to be an accident, is just a better way of making more complex problems, easier.

Talking about the part of the averages vs the uncommon and more powerful languages, he mention’s again about the macros and the impact of using Lisp on a practical way, not only because it’s easier to develop for problems with a high complexity, but also for the velocity in a business matter. The comparison was simply brutal, a develop made in a year with C compared to the same advance in Lisp only using 3 or 4 weeks, a bet that everyone will take.

For last, I think that the lesson went beyond this time, is not only to use Lisp or to try it for startups or in certain situations, The lesson that I felt reading this article was to sometimes is really worth to take risks and to do things by the unconventional way, not to do this always, but at the times that could be reliable, don’t stay at the “industry best practices” and go further, the reward may be greater than you think.

DIck Gabriel on Lisp

For this podcast there are several interesting things, but one that takes my attention is that here is the third time that I find the mention of the macros as one of the strengths of Lisp, but in this case I think it was explained by Dick Gabriel like a major advantage focused on the technical utility, more than the others, than mentioned some technical advantages, but were so more reiterative with the competition advantage or the general advantages.

Also, one of the things that I enjoyed were the direct comparisons with other languages, I felt his preference just by the way he expressed himself; that could be just presented again with the several advantages he finds about the functional ways of Lisp, its methods, the way Lisp can express everything as a function against the object oriented languages, and the significance of the popularity of Scheme in the history of the relegation of Lisp.

Some things he mentioned that were impactful for me is specific enterprises that were using Lisp at that time, and the way that Common Lisp is still viable, and you can find that can be way more powerful than others. He lived that transition from Lisp being the most used language to be almost disappeared. He gives us his perspective about the past, present and future of this great language, and one thing that makes me wonder the importance when we learn Lisp at my Programming Languages class is that he doesn’t place it on the most used languages, but with his experience and the advantages he shows for using it; just make me have even more interest about some practical applications.

For the end, I liked so much the approach that we made to Lisp with this podcast, I feel it way more personal than the articles, and It was way more impactful for me and for my perspective of Lisp.

Beating the Averages

For this article I think we all already have notions of Lisp, at least about its capacity to play with the lists, and to bend a little the concepts that we traditionally have learn about the way of programming, but the author here goes way further. He tells us a story about a success case, but not any success case, his own startup. In this context he shows us how the use of Lisp gave him and his associated a market advantage over all the other startups.

Okay, I think in this case this whole article may be easy to misinterpret because of the way he is telling us everything, even when there is explain that the case isn’t the only reason for considering Lisp as a viable option (and even a better option), It felt weird. Even with this fact, the article just gave me a new case to investigate for getting even a better impression of this language.

One of the points that is repeated in the article several times is about the strategy in the startups, specially having as a reference point the ignorance of other programmers, unknowing Lisp, and the competitive advantage that this represents; but the author doesn’t stops there, he gives us even more reasons to believe on Lisp, not only for not being widely understood by the competitors, but also for the capacity of Lisp for making macros. This might not be that impactful until is explained that this was one of the main reasons for the success of Viaweb.

Just with this little article, the author leaves in a great position the concept of his favorite language, and encourages even more people, that had doubt about the power that Lisp can offer, to learn, to improve and to develop with this incredible tool that might not appear that attractive at first term.