Comments on: Worse is not better! http://enfranchisedmind.com/blog/posts/worse-is-not-better/ programming, politics, & other religious issues Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:16:00 +0000 hourly 1 By: S. Datskovskiy http://enfranchisedmind.com/blog/posts/worse-is-not-better/#comment-37441 S. Datskovskiy Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:36:10 +0000 http://enfranchisedmind.com/blog/?p=2349#comment-37441 I am the author of the much-hated "Thumbs Down For Clojure" post. I would like to confirm that it is not, in fact, a satire. I actually believe Clojure to be a massive technological step backwards. The language is marred by a number of ugly compromises (lack of reflectivity; weird syntactic warts; lack of tail-recursion; lack of reader macros; spewing of Java stack traces; many others) for dubious gain (still less than ~1/2 the runtime speed of Common Lisp.) None of this would not bother me if the language didn't have a massive cult following, consisting of people who have never used Common Lisp (much less a Lisp Machine) and actually believe that Clojure has "picked up the torch" of Lisp. Judging by the sheer vitriol that my little post continues to attract even now, these criticisms are not baseless. Slightly off subject: there is a Symbolics Lisp Machine emulator floating around the Net. I highly recommend giving it a spin. See what a non-braindamaged operating system is like, just once in your life. Unix (and all of its cheap imitations) is a 1970s OS well past its sell-by date. Demonstrably technologically superior alternatives exist - have existed - for decades. I am the author of the much-hated “Thumbs Down For Clojure” post.
I would like to confirm that it is not, in fact, a satire.

I actually believe Clojure to be a massive technological step backwards.

The language is marred by a number of ugly compromises (lack of reflectivity; weird syntactic warts; lack of tail-recursion; lack of reader macros; spewing of Java stack traces; many others) for dubious gain (still less than ~1/2 the runtime speed of Common Lisp.) None of this would not bother me if the language didn’t have a massive cult following, consisting of people who have never used Common Lisp (much less a Lisp Machine) and actually believe that Clojure has “picked up the torch” of Lisp.

Judging by the sheer vitriol that my little post continues to attract even now, these criticisms are not baseless.

Slightly off subject: there is a Symbolics Lisp Machine emulator floating around the Net. I highly recommend giving it a spin. See what a non-braindamaged operating system is like, just once in your life. Unix (and all of its cheap imitations) is a 1970s OS well past its sell-by date. Demonstrably technologically superior alternatives exist – have existed – for decades.

]]> By: Robert Fischer http://enfranchisedmind.com/blog/posts/worse-is-not-better/#comment-37436 Robert Fischer Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:59:37 +0000 http://enfranchisedmind.com/blog/?p=2349#comment-37436 When I read that Loper OS post, I thought it was satire. It reads like something I'd write on April Fool's Day, if I felt like taking a shot at Lispers. Surreal. When I read that Loper OS post, I thought it was satire. It reads like something I’d write on April Fool’s Day, if I felt like taking a shot at Lispers. Surreal.

]]> By: Sean Hogan http://enfranchisedmind.com/blog/posts/worse-is-not-better/#comment-37435 Sean Hogan Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:19:33 +0000 http://enfranchisedmind.com/blog/?p=2349#comment-37435 Ha ha :) I suspect the language of the future will be an unexpected but elegant merging of unix and lisp that will be easily parallelizable and provide the simplest expression of complex problem domains. (And I'm not even joking or stoned) By the way, the universe is not (fundamentally) imperfect - it's just complex. Here's a perfect universe : 0 It's yours, you can keep it. cheers, Sean Ha ha :)

I suspect the language of the future will be an unexpected but elegant merging of unix and lisp that will be easily parallelizable and provide the simplest expression of complex problem domains. (And I’m not even joking or stoned)

By the way, the universe is not (fundamentally) imperfect – it’s just complex.
Here’s a perfect universe : 0
It’s yours, you can keep it.

cheers,
Sean

]]>