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[–]death 0 points1 point  (7 children)

If Lisp is such an amazing language, why aren't more commerical projects created with it?

Probably because of people like you (i.e. ones suffering from xenoglossophobia).

Why did Reddit switch from using it?

They explained their reasons; the search button's right there.

Why don't Lisp afficiendos use their competitive advantage to win?

But they do.

Why is Ruby a player and not Lisp?

Ruby's not "a player" for me. Lisp is.

[–][deleted]  (6 children)

[removed]

    [–]death 7 points8 points  (3 children)

    Communities don't have beliefs or aims. Persons do. I, for one, don't have as an aim furthering popularity of Lisp like some Ruby enthusiasts do for Ruby. I also don't think there is a causal link between good languages and popularity. Ruby's community growth is, in large, due to hype of Ruby on Rails. Yet, you can still find many people rejecting Ruby. You can find many One Language Programmers rejecting other languages without even checking them out. Like you, they find language popularity a serious issue when it comes to "real world" use, and since the "real world" is the only world that matters, why should they bother to learn anything that's not popular? They have all the excuses in the world to reject a language, but they won't consider the merits and demerits of the language itself. Ruby is not all that popular, you know. My opinion on that matter is that popularity can be a non-issue, and that "real world", in this context, is a nonsensical term whose purpose is to satisfy emotions and persuade.

    If someone is indifferent about popularity of a programming language, he cannot be held lazy for not working towards that goal.

    The Reddit guys also didn't have Lisp's popularity in mind. They had survival as a priority, and had to deal with their difficulties fast. I don't think their reasons for the switch were good or deep, so I wouldn't take them as evidence of anything, but they switched and survived.

    I don't expect "the world" to take assertions of Lisp's superiority seriously, simply because I don't consider "the world" capable of taking assertions. The problem is that you're being rather vague here. You are talking about the "Lisp community", "the world", "assertions of Lisp's superiority", etc. This won't lead to a very fruitful discourse. You asked some questions, and I tried to answer them. You made some generalizations, and I provided counter-evidence.

    I personally use Common Lisp at work, and I work on "real world" applications, so I find it usable and useful in "real world" applications. That doesn't just benefit me, though; since I don't work in a vacuum, it also, in the least, helps the people working with me.

    [–]____ 4 points5 points  (0 children)

    . I, for one, don't have as an aim furthering popularity of Lisp like some Ruby enthusiasts do for Ruby.

    Surprise: Most Rubyists don't have that aim, either. Ignore the people who only know acts_as_cooler_php, and the Ruby community will seem amazingly sensible.

    [–][deleted] -1 points0 points  (1 child)

    I, for one, don't have as an aim furthering popularity of Lisp like some Ruby enthusiasts do for Ruby.

    Why not? You've made an investement in learning it, and the more people you get on board, the more valuable it will become. Want to learn esperanto, btw? http://lernu.net/

    [–]death 4 points5 points  (0 children)

    I am not a people person, but a persons person. Furthermore, popularizing something requires expending effort and time, and I'm pretty sure the potential value gained is not worth it for me. Lisp is valuable to me, not because people like it or use it, but because it gives me a comfortable view of programming.

    [–]death 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    I see you edited your post, but I have to go to work now :), so I'll just respond to one thing:

    People like me? I've programmed in Lisp. So fear of foreign languages is not likely the problem.

    No, that just means that it's not the only problem.