[reikonomusha]

You have to first install a Lisp compiler whose REPL is so spartan than even using arrow keys causes errors in your terminal. You have to learn Emacs. Figure out wtf SLIME and Paredit are from docs written in piecemeal plaintext READMEs. Then learn from a book that's older than you that makes no reference to any of the tools you just labored over installing. Then get a bunch of conflicting information about proper Lisp style from random patches of internet.

Who has time for that these days, except for the very determined and dedicated?

I think Lisp is a superlative language with excellent tools—once learned. But it hasn't had its UI revolution from anybody who cares enough to do the work.

[hollerith]

I've been writing Lisp for 40 years, and still haven't started using SLIME or Paredit.

And the reason it is called "style" is that it is not essential to actually getting things done.

[reikonomusha]

Style is not essential to getting things done, but it's essential to building a community and having labor be multiplicative in its impact. Lisp is a language ripe for expressing a personal style, and that's antithetical to collaboration in a variety of ways. It can be managed, if the community can rally around a common set of principles.

I likewise have written Common Lisp for decades. But I also get paid to do it, manage a team that does it, and see immense value in doing these extra things that hackers don't much care for, such as:

- making Lisp compatible with other languages through ABIs

- developing stylistic guidelines

- developing systems for static typing in Lisp to assist long-term development and maintenance of Lisp code

- etc.

So does style or the lack of any of the aforementioned bullets "block" the ability to "get things done"? Strictly speaking, no, but it inhibits outside interest in your project.

[hollerith]

> Lisp is a language ripe for expressing a personal style, and that's antithetical to collaboration in a variety of ways.

I concede that point. Also, I'm the only user of most or all of the Lisp I've written over the last 40 years.

[behnamoh]

IDK why you're being downvoted. The things you mentioned are actually true and I've faced them too.