Technology
If Lisp is So Great
paulgraham.com
Technology
2 min read → 50 sec
Programming language popularity follows familiarity, ecosystem effects, and hiring incentives more than technical merit. Lisp remains less common partly because it looks foreign, not because it is slow or equivalent to mainstream languages.
Programming language popularity has little correlation with language quality
Lisp survives because languages are not equivalent, and some are much better
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Lisp looks hard because its syntax is unlike the languages most programmers know
People avoid it by inventing reasons that mask their fear of its unfamiliar form
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I suppose I should learn Lisp, but it seems so foreign
1983 notebook entry
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The old claim that Lisp is too slow no longer holds
Modern Lisp dialects are among the faster languages
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The current excuse against Lisp is circular: other languages are more popular
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Programming language popularity is self-reinforcing through three mechanisms
INDEX
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More libraries get written for popular languages, which makes them even more popular
002
Programs often need to work with existing programs, so languages spread from program to program
003
Managers prefer popular languages because developers are easier to replace
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008
If programming languages were roughly equivalent, using the most popular one would make sense
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009
Lisp survives for the same reason Jane Austen survives while John Grisham outsells her
Less popular languages persist because some are much better
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