On Mon, Sep 11, 2006 at 02:28:09PM +0530, Surendra Singhi wrote: > Hi, > > An old article on anti-advocacy, though written for Perl, I think it is > relevant to lisp or any other language also > > http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2000/12/advocacy.html
Interesting . . . I know Perl better than any other programming language, but I had no idea this article existed until this night. It appeared on the ruby-talk mailing list. By the time I was done reading it, it had appeared here. Funny how that works. Mark Dominus makes some good points about the damage advocacy can do. It goes even further than he describes, however: the sort of advocacy that blinds people to the shortcomings of their favored languages and the comparative benefits of others don't only harm those favored languages, but the entirety of the field of programming. Languages evolve best when their maintainers are cognizant of the comparative benefits of other languages, and mine that information for ideas on how to improve the languages they're using. Programming languages, as a result, exist in sort of a deeply interconnected ecosystem. The very fact that Lisp features are trickling out into the rest of the programming world steadily, over time, in addition to the changes in Lisp (such as CLOS) that are inspired by other languages, clearly illustrates this fact. More trivially, as an example of the fact that many people listen with an advocate's ear, there are people who have the impression that I think Python is a crappy language. I don't, really: I think it's an excellent language. I'd just rather burn my hand on a hot skillet than lay eyes on Python source code, and some of the language's characteristics are rather antithetical to my own preferences (as are some of the Python community's characteristics somewhat unpalatable to me). I've never hesitated to admit that, despite my distaste for it, Python is a great language -- but somehow that gets lost in the noise of people's expectations of advocacy. There are languages I wish people would use more, and some I wish people would use less (Java is so popular, thanks to effective corporate advocacy, that it regularly gets used in places it shouldn't). Lisp strikes me as a clear "wish people would use more" example, but I'll reserve final judgment until I can call myself something approaching "competent" in its use. Everything I learn about it only further whets my appetite to learn more, though, thus far. By the way, hi. My name's Chad. I'm new to this Lisp stuff, but I like it so far. I'm currently reading Brian Harvey's "Computer Science Logo Style" trilogy of books, and will likely move from that directly to the online version of "Practical Common Lisp". Any warnings or advice would be appreciated, but so far I'm happy as a clam with what I'm doing. -- CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ] "The first rule of magic is simple. Don't waste your time waving your hands and hopping when a rock or a club will do." - McCloctnick the Lucid _______________________________________________ Gardeners mailing list [email protected] http://www.lispniks.com/mailman/listinfo/gardeners
