[boomstrap]

This whole post is complete nonsense.

Taking two examples of applications written in Lisp and trying to shoehorn a premise to it is ridiculous. Lisp/PHP/Perl/Ruby/Java are all tools. Anyone who tells you that one house is better than another because it was built with a different type of hammer would (and should) be laughed at.

Take this quote and substitute Ruby/Rails or Python/Django or even Java/Spring would give you the same answer and even have a larger base of developers to draw from.

"Our hypothesis was that if we wrote our software in Lisp, we'd be able to get features done faster than our competitors, and also to do things in our software that they couldn't do. And because Lisp was so high-level, we wouldn't need a big development team, so our costs would be lower. If this were so, we could offer a better product for less money, and still make a profit. We would end up getting all the users, and our competitors would get none, and eventually go out of business."

[Terhorst]

Are you saying that if someone built a house with an inflatable mallet and someone else built one with a nail gun there would be no difference of quality in the resulting house, or that one wouldn't be completed sooner, or be more extensible? (Yes, you can laugh at me.)

I agree with you that all languages are tools (I love working with all kinds, actually). But aren't some tools better at some things than others? Or what would we need so many for?

I'm not saying Lisp is the nail gun and everything else is an inflatable mallet, but I do think there is a difference.

What I got out of the article is that Lisp is a tool that worked pretty darn well in a couple cases. I feel that's a good thing, because I kind of like Lisp.

[boomstrap]

I'm saying whats important is the quality of the resulting house (we maybe extending the metaphor too far here). If you can make a better/higher value/more usable house with an inflatable mallet then with a nail gun then yes that may be the right choice.

"But aren't some tools better at some things than others?"

Absolutely, and note I'm not taking shot at Lisp as a language. My argument is with the article, there is nothing here that supports his premise that Lisp is for entrepreneurs. That it was the right choice for a couple of cases? Sure! but for anyone starting a software business? nonsense.

[Terhorst]

I agree on that point: Lisp (or any single language for that matter) is unlikely to be the right choice for everyone.

[herdrick]

Languages are not just hammers. They are universes for thinking in.

So you're using Rails... What if I told you all your competitors were using Java and Spring? Gives you a surge of confidence, doesn't it? That's the feeling Lispers have about Rails programmers, for the same reason.