Re: Lisp/Unix impedance [a programming challenge]

Adam Warner <usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> The difference is apparent when one tries to knock up a Common Lisp
> program to emulate a trivial Unix script. This may be one good reason
> Common Lisp is not a popular glue/scripting language upon Unix.
>
> Let's consider this from a different perspective: How many languages in
> common use upon Unix are less expressive than Common Lisp at substituting
> a string within a stdin/stdout filter using each language's standard
> library?

I don't have an answer to that question. However, how do you explain
this oddity in a language that values the principle of least surprise?

$ perl -e 'print "true\n" if ("1" == 1);'
true

Another thing about "glue" languages is that they really only work
well when the glue can stick. Lisp is very good at gluing other Lisp
code together. And Lisp is no worse at reading from one stream and
writing out to another than many other general purpose programming
languages.

--
An ideal world is left as an excercise to the reader.
--- Paul Graham, On Lisp 8.1
No excuses. No apologies. Just do it.
--- Erik Naggum
.

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