Ask HN: I know Haskell, Clojure, Scheme. Should I learn CL?
I'm definitely comfortable with Haskell, and I learned Scheme through SICP and I've played with clojure enough to know my way around. I've done a little with common lisp, but not enough to claim I know it. Given my experience with related languages, would learning CL be useful for me at all, either academically or practically?
3 comments
It's an interesting language since it's (obviously) all beautiful and Lispy, and has good support for functional ideas...yet very much encourages a "get it done" approach.
For example, here's something like how a Schemer might implement filter (although this seems long to me...am I missing something?):
For example, here's something like how a Schemer might implement filter (although this seems long to me...am I missing something?):
(defun filter (predicate list)
(if list
(let ((head (car list))
(tail (cdr list)))
(if (funcall predicate head)
(cons head (filter predicate tail))
(filter predicate tail)))
'()))
(defun filter (predicate list)
(loop for elem in list
if (funcall predicate elem)
collect elem))
It's hardly a language that will give you any new revalations in itself (if you already know the ones you mentioned). On the other hand, CL does have some grreeat books. Peter Norvig's and PG's books in particular are fantastic and will make you a better clojure/scheme programmer.
So yeah it's worth it!
So yeah it's worth it!