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smuglispweeny
Personal blog · smuglispweeny.blogspot.comprogrammingculture
smuglispweeny is a personal blog at smuglispweeny.blogspot.com about programming and culture. Since 2008, 26 different Hacker News readers have linked it 37 times, most often “Ooh Ooh My Turn Why Lisp? (2008)”. The last post was in 2017, but the archive is still widely read.
Grossly unfair, unreliable, biased, and pretty much delusional rants and ravings on Lisp from a simple working application programmer.
Most-linked posts?
- Ooh Ooh My Turn Why Lisp? (2008)8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2008-02-27
- Tilton's Law - solve the first problem first3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2008-03-11
- Wow, even Lispers hate Lisp2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-10-16
- The King is Dead? Long live... Scala? Clojure?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-11-01
- AA, BB, CC, and DD2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2008-07-25
- Parentheses? What parentheses?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2008-03-01
- My Biggest Lisp Project 2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2008-03-10
What Hacker News says?
Peter Norvig explained why he came to Python from Lisp in an HN posting a decade ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1803815 >norvig on Oct 18, 2010 | parent | favorite | on: Ask PG: Lisp vs Python (2010) >Peter Norvig here. I came to Python not because I thought it was a better/acceptable/pragmatic Lisp, but because it was better pseudocode. Several students claimed that they had a hard time mapping from the…
Comment linking /2008/02/ooh-ooh-my-turn-why-lisp.html
on “I’ve Consed Every Pair”Submitted Ooh Ooh My Turn Why Lisp? (2008) as a story · 99 points
HN discussionRegarding that[0]: At ILC 2002 former Lisp giant now Python advocate Peter Norvig was for some reason allowed to give the keynote address like Martin Luther leading Easter Sunday mass at the Vatican and pitching Protestantism because in his talk Peter bravely repeated his claim that Python is a Lisp. When he finished Peter took questions and to my surprise called first on the rumpled old guy who had wandered in just…
Comment linking /2008/02/ooh-ooh-my-turn-why-lisp.html
on “How knowing Lisp destroyed my programming career (2006)”Submitted The Making of Cells: A Case Study in Dumb Luck as a story · 38 points
HN discussionHow often is camlp4/5 used among the typical OCaml programmer compared to how often macros are used among typical Lisp programmers? How easy is camlp4/5 metaprogramming to read and write compared to Lisp macros? This reminds me of Alan Perlis' admonition to "beware of the Turing tar-pit in which everything is possible but nothing of interest is easy." [1] and of a question John McCarthy asked Peter Norvig after the…
Comment linking /2008/02/ooh-ooh-my-turn-why-lisp.html
on “Alan Kay on Lisp”Submitted Tilton's Law - solve the first problem first as a story · 29 points
HN discussion+1. Kenny Tilton's blog is also great for that kind of thing. "You know Lisp is the perfect language precisely because it lost its momentum (died) and lives on. Other languages need their Next Big Thing momentum." http://smuglispweeny.blogspot.com/2013/08/wow-even-lispers-h...
Comment linking /2013/08/wow-even-lispers-hate-lisp.html
on “Show HN: Full Stack Lisp – A book in progress about writing Common Lisp apps”Submitted My Biggest Lisp Project as a story · 17 points
HN discussionThat reminds me of a cool story, in Norvig's talk about Python... When he finished Peter [Norvig] took questions and to my surprise called first on the rumpled old guy who had wandered in just before the talk began and eased himself into a chair just across the aisle from me and a few rows up. This guy had wild white hair and a scraggly white beard and looked hopelessly lost as if he had gotten separated from the to…
Comment linking /2008/02/ooh-ooh-my-turn-why-lisp.html
on “Ask PG: Lisp vs Python (2010)”Submitted Ooh! Ooh! My turn! Why Lisp? as a story · 12 points
HN discussionWas McCarthy even thinking of macros when he locked onto code as data? Or was he thinking code generation in pursuit of AI?Asking, do not know. I know macros are a great example of code=data, but I once had a ball using the AllegroStore CLOS database and a homebrewed DB synch layer to handle remote distribution and update of forms and the code to validate them in a clinical drug trial management context, where forms…
Comment linking /2008/03/my-biggest-lisp-project.html
on “Python for Lisp Programmers (2000)”Submitted All Your Parentheses Are Belong to Us as a story · 11 points
HN discussionThis seems to be a good excuse to share this great story: > At ILC 2002 former Lisp giant now Python advocate Peter Norvig was for some reason allowed to give the keynote address like Martin Luther leading Easter Sunday mass at the Vatican and pitching Protestantism because in his talk Peter bravely repeated his claim that Python is a Lisp. > When he finished Peter took questions and to my surprise called first on t…
Comment linking /2008/02/ooh-ooh-my-turn-why-lisp.html
on “Python for Lisp Programmers (2000)”Submitted Tilton's Un-Law: Treasure the First Problem as a story · 7 points
HN discussionThe best retort to the parenthesis complaint is: " I like to ask people who complain about parentheses in Lisp if they are bothered by all the spaces between words in a newspaper. " ( http://smuglispweeny.blogspot.com/2008/02/what-hell-is-fortu... )
Comment linking /2008/02/what-hell-is-fortune-cookie-file-anyway.html
on “Why Lisp Is Unpopular”Submitted The King is Dead? Long live... Scala? Clojure? as a story · 7 points
HN discussion> > I think there are a lot of people who believe they understand Python because it kindof looks like Java. > Have you actually met anyone who's asserted that Python "kind of looks like Java" That's unfair. > let alone that its resemblance to Java makes it easier for them to understand? Yes, but maybe not in the way you're expecting. Guido himself remarked on many of their similarities back in 1997[1]; They definite…
Comment linking /2008/02/ooh-ooh-my-turn-why-lisp.html
on “IBM APL2: Software withdrawal and support discontinuance”Submitted AA, BB, CC, and DD as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI phrase this as "solve the first problem" whenever I explain my functionally identical method to others. Google tells me I have stolen Tilton's Law[1], the origin of which I will endeavor to remember in future. [1] http://smuglispweeny.blogspot.com/2008/03/tiltons-law-solve-... Edit: grammar.
Comment linking /2008/03/tiltons-law-solve-first-problem.html
on “Ask HN: What are your productivity hacks?”Submitted It's the shoes, Jeff! It's the shoes! as a story · 4 points
HN discussionIt even has Macros: http://smuglispweeny.blogspot.com/2008/03/kenny-and-firing-s...
Comment linking /2008/03/kenny-and-firing-squad-episode-ii-cobol.html
on “Why are there unfilled Perl jobs in LA?”Submitted The Worst Thing You Can Say About Software Is That It Works as a story · 4 points
HN discussionCells!: https://github.com/kennytilton/cells/wiki rah-rah: http://smuglispweeny.blogspot.com/2008/02/cells-manifesto.ht... The latest buzzword is Functional Reactive Programming. Well, latest three buzzwords.
Comment linking /2008/02/cells-manifesto.html
on “Ask HN: What open source project is your pride and joy?”Submitted The King is Dead? Long live... Scala? Clojure? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionApparently COBOL does have Macros: http://smuglispweeny.blogspot.com/2008/03/kenny-and-firing-s...
Comment linking /2008/03/kenny-and-firing-squad-episode-ii-cobol.html
on “COBOL MOVEs 50 to AGE”Submitted Smuglispweeny: COBOL has Macros? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Road to qooxdoo Part III: Why It Rocks as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Road to qooxdoo as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted We Can Live with the Way You Handled That (2008) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Ooh Ooh My Turn Why Lisp? as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
