Choose one (1) option:
In 1980, on the Lisp’s 20th anniversary, McCarthy wrote that Lisp had survived as long as it had because it occupied “some kind of approximate local optimum in the space of programming languages.” [2] That diminishes Lisp’s real influence in computing. Lisp hasn’t survived for over 50 years because programmers have conceded that it is the best tool for the job decade after decade; in fact, it has survived even though most programmers do not use it at all. Thanks to its origins and use in artificial intelligence research, Lisp continues to fascinate people. Until we can imagine something that really changes the world, Lisp isn’t going anywhere.
- a) Facebook vs Google
- b) Super Bowl LIII
- c) LISP
Well, if you read the title, you probably chose the correct option. Not Java, not Python or even Swift, this time i'll talk about Lisp. But, why did I choose it? Just because I recently listened a podcast on my free time, and as you may guess, it was about Lisp. So get yourself prepared, because i'll compress 60 minutes of talking into a short, but complete, post. Anyway, without further ado, let me turn to the matter in hand.
The story from Lisp goes back to the mid 1950s, when John McCarthy, the creator of Lisp, did not originally intend for Lisp to be an elegant refining of the principles of computation. But, after one or two insights, that’s what Lisp became. Paul Graham wrote that, with Lisp, McCarthy “did for programming something like what Euclid did for geometry.”[1] After some work from McCarthy, some grads from the MIT and Steve Russel, Lisp was born.
The way Lisp was constructed, made itself very popular among other programming languages, making it the preferred one for AI investigations and research. One of the reasons was that you can write Lisp programs that create other Lisp programs. Another nice thing, that really caught me, is that you don’t have to worry about syntax of parsing, you just have to take care about the expressiveness of what you are writing.
The way Lisp was constructed, made itself very popular among other programming languages, making it the preferred one for AI investigations and research. One of the reasons was that you can write Lisp programs that create other Lisp programs. Another nice thing, that really caught me, is that you don’t have to worry about syntax of parsing, you just have to take care about the expressiveness of what you are writing.
In 1980, on the Lisp’s 20th anniversary, McCarthy wrote that Lisp had survived as long as it had because it occupied “some kind of approximate local optimum in the space of programming languages.” [2] That diminishes Lisp’s real influence in computing. Lisp hasn’t survived for over 50 years because programmers have conceded that it is the best tool for the job decade after decade; in fact, it has survived even though most programmers do not use it at all. Thanks to its origins and use in artificial intelligence research, Lisp continues to fascinate people. Until we can imagine something that really changes the world, Lisp isn’t going anywhere.
[1] Paul Graham, “The Roots of Lisp”, 1, January 18, 2002 [http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/llog/jmc.pdf]
[2] John McCarthy, “Lisp—Notes on its past and future”, 3, Stanford University, 1980, [http://jmc.stanford.edu/articles/lisp20th/lisp20th.pdf]
[2] John McCarthy, “Lisp—Notes on its past and future”, 3, Stanford University, 1980, [http://jmc.stanford.edu/articles/lisp20th/lisp20th.pdf]
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