Somebody redpill me on LISP. Everyone keeps saying how it's

>>59493045
>What can one truly gain from it?
Autism

>>59493045
Why is there a menorah

>>59493070
> Autism
Wrong! High-functioning Autism.

>>59493083

http://www.clisp.org/impnotes/faq.html#faq-menorah

huh

>>59493045

The reason "everyone keeps saying how enlightening LISP is" is probably the book "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" (SICP). It was the entry course book at the MIT and uses the MIT Scheme programming language, which is like LISP with some minor differences (basically it's a little bit simpler).

And now to the answer of your question:
Since Scheme has almost no syntax and allows a lot of fancy stuff, it's a pretty good fit for teaching different programming paradigms. So when you work yourself through SICP you learn different programming concepts (i.e. functional programming) and make your own compiler..


Well, LISP has a very special syntax. Just give it a shot, some people get used to it and start to like it eventually, others hate it. But wether you keep on using it afterwards or not, doing the SICP course will probably make you a better programmer.

>>59493083

(((((((LISP)))))))

>>59493083
(((LISP)))
lmao

>>59493141
CLISP has been using the menorah for the logo since the project was first started in the late 1980-ies by Bruno Haible and Michael Stoll. This probably reflects the authors' affection toward the Jewish people, Judaism or the State of Israel (neither of the two original authors is Jewish by birth). You may ask the original authors for details yourself. Both of them are very busy though, so do not expect a prompt reply.

List is an outdated language with dead community, unmaintainable syntax, obsolete standard, with no modern developer tools. The only use it has know is in supporting legacy code. The only interesting thing about it it homoiconoty and it just doesn't worth it.
> Everyone keeps saying how it's such an enlightening experience to learn LISP.
They're just repeating memes from the 70-80s. Back then it was an enlightening experience comparing to C or Pascal, but now you Python which is the same thing but better. If you really need 'enlightening experience' checkout actual FP languages like Haskell.

>>59493474

Nah.

Python is not as powerful as LISP. The whole philosophy of Python is very different from LISO. Also python is more oriented at pascal. At least use Ruby, it's closer to LISP (i.e. you can even use CallCC and "fake" macros pretty good).

That said, LISP is always worth it. Even if you are a webshit and program only in JS, LISP will give you a power-up. CL has been around for ages and will be, also there is Clojure on the JVM. It's kina niche in comparison to Java or C, but there are some jobs out there and it's fun to use.

Don't be so salty.

>>59493045
>What can one truly gain from it?

Lisp is like a programmable programming language. It has basically no syntax, but code itself is data, so you can write your own syntax.

A gentle introduction to common lisp by Touretsky has the nicest explanation of recursion I've ever read (chapter 8). Most explanations you'll encounter are worth fuck all. Fibonacci recursion is just one type of recursion. After that book play with SICP.

>redpill me
>Help me justify uncritically ignoring everything anyone says about topics I know nothing about!

Ironic that 'redpill' has come to mean "give the tools to ignore radical elements and preserve the status quo."