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by kossmoboleat 3610 days ago
I still do wonder why reddit was reimplemented in Python, but with rewrites in other languages I think that rewriting in itself made it more readable and not using the other language. Plus maybe using a web framework instead of doing most by hand, because I assume lisp had even fewer good web frameworks than python then.
3 comments
coldtea 3610 days ago
>I still do wonder why reddit was reimplemented in Python

Because they new Python better and/or it has a better and vastly bigger ecosystem and libs, and it being Lisp only gave the very marginal returns of being cool to your programming peers.

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qwertyuiop924 3610 days ago
Python had better libs. And they wrote web.py. Which is just barely less cool than Flask.
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mbrock 3610 days ago
That seems like an unnecessary jab.
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coldtea 3610 days ago
Not if it's true.

Python does have a better and vastly bigger ecosystem and libs.

And doing something in Lisp doesn't offer any huge benefits over Python -- besides the cool factor.

Sure, Lisp has some tricks Python doesn't have -- macros, homoiconicity, uniform syntax, etc -- but still with those, in real life, people haven't been able to come with anything like an order of magnitude or at least several times better programs or faster development than with something like Python.

Just ask Norvig.

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fractallyte 3610 days ago
Actually, someone did ask Norvig... ;-)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1803627

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philh 3610 days ago
They told us why they reimplemented it in python.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:orxAytX...

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jokoon 3610 days ago
For the same reason people talk english and not latin.

Even if latin is a better and more expressive language, choosing english as a language will make the project more viable.

A language is a method of communication, so it is a sound choice to pick a language that is understood by many, not the language that is better of more powerful.

Quick thought experiment: how probable is it that a project (open source or not) will die because it uses a language most programmers are not fluent with? How long does it takes anybody (meaning you include the not so good programmers) to learn python or lisp, and effectively be able to use it and solve problems with it?

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