Whatever is going on in a LISPers mind is pretty impressive.
Deeply nested structures are one of the absolute most common things I see in code that makes it harder to read than it needs to be.
When something is nested, every level of nesting is part of the context you need to understand, and more than a few levels just doesn't fit on a screen when you indent it.
Often if there are any syntax errors, auto format won't work, so you have to be careful or else wind up possibly spending several minutes just figuring out where a closing brace or closing tag is supposed to go.
Just the structure alone is hard enough, but then on top of it, the language itself is flexible and full of user defined syntax, and lots of flavors don't even have any static typing.
It seems almost like a language for computer science more than for programming.
> It seems almost like a language for computer science more than for programming.
I don't think that's entirely fair. Lisp is ideal for certain types of problems and can give great clarity when in its lane. However, while it can be used as a general-purpose language, it isn't great at that. It's a bit of a special-purpose tool.
Whatever is going on in a LISPers mind is pretty impressive.
Deeply nested structures are one of the absolute most common things I see in code that makes it harder to read than it needs to be.
When something is nested, every level of nesting is part of the context you need to understand, and more than a few levels just doesn't fit on a screen when you indent it.
Often if there are any syntax errors, auto format won't work, so you have to be careful or else wind up possibly spending several minutes just figuring out where a closing brace or closing tag is supposed to go.
Just the structure alone is hard enough, but then on top of it, the language itself is flexible and full of user defined syntax, and lots of flavors don't even have any static typing.
It seems almost like a language for computer science more than for programming.
> It seems almost like a language for computer science more than for programming.
I don't think that's entirely fair. Lisp is ideal for certain types of problems and can give great clarity when in its lane. However, while it can be used as a general-purpose language, it isn't great at that. It's a bit of a special-purpose tool.
> It's a bit of a special-purpose tool.
Given its expressivity and extensibility, Lisp is a special-purpose tool for all general and special cases.
TFA has one of the best descriptions of Lisp syntax (and its parentheses) I've ever encountered:
"Parenthesis are the contour lines in the topographic map of your Lisp program."