You should go read some Donald Knuth source code, or use a Donald Knuth Design (try TeX).
Seriously I love this crazy guy, incredibly smart, but he can't code _properly_ for his life.
This sums it up:
He applied his intelligence in unconventional ways, winning a contest when he was in eighth grade by finding over 4,500 words that could be formed from the letters in "Ziegler's Giant Bar"; the judges had only about 2,500 words on their master list. This won him a television set for his school and a candy bar for everyone in his class.
You misunderstand the situation. CL-WHO is not a templating library, and many templating libraries are available (like CL-TEMPLATE).
Your point about unmaintained libraries: Most CL libraries are just really stable. Yes a lot of CL code hasn't been touched since 2006 or even 2000. Because it didn't need to be touched. See we have been around for some time. Our ecosystem is quite mature.
CL is a language for experienced programmers. It's not a toy like ruby for instance. I can see why a lot of new programmers are put off by the non-consumerist nature of CL. You have to understand that if you develop WITH CL you also develop CL as itself.
Small plug: I wasn't happy with CL-WHO either so I created my own HTML generation library. It's like 100 lines of code, and solves my needs http://mr.gy/software/html/
Pro-Tip: AIDS/HIV does not exist. It's a poverty/fucked up life conditions induced sympthome worsened by hardcore medication which leads to death (cleansing of the population, extermination of the poor scum). Mass propaganda makes this lie stand, fear makes it stick.
you have a function which is like 700 lines long. Without actually reading much of the source, I can tell you that you're coding style is very problematic. I'd say read a book like Practical Common Lisp or similar where general coding techniques are showcased. They apply to more than just Lisp.
Hint: A JSON parser should have functions 'parse-object'/'parse-string'/'parse-number'or something!
I really wouldn't ever work with microsoft software. But everything you said makes perfect sense and I agree that PG is way off most of the times.
Pg's one year estimate is a manipulation to lure people into software engineering. NY_Enrepreneur's story is a realistic description of what it takes to solve computer related problems.
If you can not identify with his obvious workflow then you probably have never solved a real problem. He seems like a disciplined productive person.
using gimp all the time. Nowadays Photoshops UI seems strange to me but I remember at first GIMP was kind of weird because of the multi windows. Anyways, looks good!
Seriously I love this crazy guy, incredibly smart, but he can't code _properly_ for his life. This sums it up: He applied his intelligence in unconventional ways, winning a contest when he was in eighth grade by finding over 4,500 words that could be formed from the letters in "Ziegler's Giant Bar"; the judges had only about 2,500 words on their master list. This won him a television set for his school and a candy bar for everyone in his class.
[Wikipedia]