Re: Which one shall I choose?

[Tim Hammerquist <tim@vegeta.ath.cx>]

Johan Kullstam graced us by uttering:
> Tim Hammerquist <tim@vegeta.ath.cx> writes:
>> <http://hebb.cis.uoguelph.ca/~dave/27320/new/unixphil.html>, the nine
>> "tenets" of the Unix Philosophy:
>> 
>>    1. small is beautiful
>>    2. make each program do one thing well
>>    3. build a prototype as soon as possible
>>    4. choose portability over efficiency
>>    5. store numerical data in flat files
>>    6. use software leverage to your advantage
>>    7. use shell scripts to increase leverage and portability
>>    8. avoid captive user interfaces
>>    9. make every program a filter
> 
> one could say similar about a lisp environment.
> 
> 1. each lisp function is a little program.  you have *lots* of lisp
>    functions.  look, emacs is nearly an OS unto itself.  you have to
>    look at lisp functions as building blocks and resist calling the
>    bundle of everything in emacs a monolith.  you wouldn't say unix is
>    one big monolithic system.
> 
> 2. each lisp function can do one thing well.
> 
> 3. lisp is the fastest prototyping language i've used.
> 
> 4. emacs (and hence its lisp) is highly portable.  common-lisp too.
> 
> 5. lisp can store data in readable, portable, non-binary files.
>    however, unlike the usual unix half solution, it can retain
>    structure and context.  see the kludge that is XML trying to
>    demonstrate greenspun's tenth rule.
> 
> 6. gnus is the most massive leverage of software i have seen.
> 
> 7. why have shells, perl, C and crap when lisp can do it all?
> 
> 8. not sure what a captive luser interface is.
> 
> 9. every lisp function returns a value.  moreover, the value can be
>    structured.
> 
> there are more tenents of unix --

Yes, but I didn't want to get too deep into this. ;)

Your points lead to the inevitable (and pre-existing) quote:

   "Emacs is a nice OS - but it lacks a good text editor.
    That's why I am using Vim."
        -- Anonymous

=)

>> Obviously I was either onto something, or on something.
>>     -- Larry Wall on the creation of Perl
> 
> i am leaning to the latter.  a reaction against perl is what drove me
> into the arms of common-lisp.

Fair.  You're far from alone.  I personally find much to love in both
clisp and perl for completely different reasons.

My LOC, tho, for the moment is Ruby.

Tim Hammerquist
-- 
...it's fairly surprising how long a system will stay up when you remove all
the executables, most of the libraries, and trash a filesystem or two.
    -- Simon, BOFH: No Service Therefore No Denial