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by lmm 2955 days ago
> Do other popular languages support a similar construct? C? C++? Perl?

C? No, though I don't really think of that as an actively maintained language. C++ and Perl achieve the same thing via RAII.

> Not that it takes anything away from Java. I think all languages are gradually trying to or discovering the approach the features and expressiveness of Lisp.

I think language design converges over time, alternating between expressive-but-unmaintainable and structured-but-too-strict but getting closer to the ideal as we advance. In many ways Lisp isn't a complete language design at all - rather macros are there for the user to finish the language themselves.
2 comments
kazinator 2955 days ago
> I don't really think of that as an actively maintained language.

Oh, were it only so! It's an actively diddled language.

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sedachv 2955 days ago
> C? No, though I don't really think of that as an actively maintained language.

Why would you think that? Work on the C standard is ongoing: http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/

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lmm 2954 days ago
Just that I hadn't heard of a new release since 1999, shrug.
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