It's a bit sad to see that the book he's referring to at the end is a book released in 2003, to which this is the foreword.
Lisp is an incredible experience to write and experiment in, unlike any other language I've ever worked in.
Still, I believe there are many people out in the field that are mostly about "just delivering the spec" or about making money; pragmatists who care not too much about the art behind the software, and I suspect that will always remain the case.
Craftmanship marrying art and mastery is a niche, but that doesn't mean it's not thriving in spaces for enthusiasts.
> Lisp is an incredible experience to write and experiment in, unlike any other language I've ever worked in.
I think that the experienced of Smalltalk is very similar in some ways, despite the languages themselves being very different. At the end of the day I prefer Lisp, in large part because I feel that it interoperates with the rest of my system better (I could be wrong — no doubt expert Smalltalkers have figure out solutions to all the issues which annoyed me once upon a time).
They’re both roads not taken. It’s sad, and I think that our industry would be in a much better position had we not wasted decades in the C trap. But history unfolded as it did. Maybe it had to.
It's a bit sad to see that the book he's referring to at the end is a book released in 2003, to which this is the foreword.
Lisp is an incredible experience to write and experiment in, unlike any other language I've ever worked in.
Still, I believe there are many people out in the field that are mostly about "just delivering the spec" or about making money; pragmatists who care not too much about the art behind the software, and I suspect that will always remain the case.
Craftmanship marrying art and mastery is a niche, but that doesn't mean it's not thriving in spaces for enthusiasts.