From: Brian Adkins <lojicdotcom@...>
Date: 2007-10-06T03:05:06+09:00
Subject: Re: Confession: I never did ASM

On Oct 5, 9:43 am, "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <zn...@cesmail.net> wrote:
> The problem with Lisp (in its current form, not the elegant formalisms
> of the 1960s and of the core Scheme) is that it tries to be a
> general-purpose language when there is absolutely *no* market for paid
> Lisp programmers in applications outside of its "traditional" base of AI
> and symbolic calculations. Sure, you *can* write an efficient, scalable,
> etc., web application server in Common Lisp, but who's going to fund it?

Those are good observations, but if I had taken that perspective, I'd
still be programming in Java instead of Ruby!

I agree with you regarding job/consulting outlook, but I'm not looking
for a job or a contract (BTDT), so the primary question regarding
technology choices for me pertains to the productivity of myself
(currently), and a small team (later), in scenarios where the
customers are more concerned with results than underlying technology.
That's a great benefit of developing web applications - there's often
less concern for what's running on the server.

Optimizing over a shorter period (months) would indicate that nothing
can touch Ruby for me due to its capabilities and my experience level
with it. Optimizing over a longer period (years) the question is less
clear. If the Y axis is productivity, and the X axis is time, then I
think the Y intercept for Ruby is much higher than for Lisp, but I
can't say for sure that f-ruby(x) > f-lisp(x) (or f-other(x)) for all
x. Of course, you really need to look at the integral, but you get the
idea. :)

The only reason I'm continuing this thread on a Ruby ng, is because
the attitude of "which language will get me the best job", that I had
for *many* years, had me programming in languages that were far
inferior to Ruby (IMO) for years. When my personal productivity in
creating solutions became more important than job demand, switching
from Java to Ruby was an easy decision. And when you experience a huge
gain in productivity like that, I think it's natural to then ask the
question, "can I do it again?".