Post #4405111

2026-05-10 03:42 UTC

@AmenZwa@mathstodon.xyz I love Python during dev and prototyping but dislike in prod and longterm maintenance. Lisp I've always admired from afar, in theory, but my brain/eyes dont like all the parentheses. I love the sheer expressive power of its syntax, however! If I had infinite free time I could see myself taking a deep dive into Clojure.

Replies (1)

@AmenZwa@mathstodon.xyz 2026-05-10 04:06

@synlogic4242@social.vivaldi.net I share your view about Python. When I'm forced to use Python, I always use the "typing" library. My ML-addled brain always seek types. You can't go wrong with picking up any or all of Racket, Scheme, Common Lisp, or Clojure. Clojure is the sensible choice for those who can't escape the JVM. I have always liked the LISP sexp syntax, since I was a uni kid, when I first encountered LISP. The benefits of the sexp syntax are well documented: parsability, homoiconicity, and so on. But most every programmer I've met detests LISP. They cite the lost-in-stupid-parentheses syntax as the reason why they hate LISP. The real, yet often unacknowledged, reason, though, is their inability to grasp FP. I've always maintained that the syntax of a language is irrelevant to language users, at least it ought to be, since it is the semantics that truly matters to their work. But we programmers, being who we are, always have emotional reactions to syntax. My advice to everyone is this: during the early phase of learning a new language, always check the syntactic passions.

Open ##4405112