Hey David,
do you mean that these concepts are only present in Lisp :))) ?!?!?
Good old interpreted Basic, APL, ... -> dynamic global variables,
functions, ....
assembly languages in general, C, C++, m4, ... -> macros not as cute as
Lisp maybe but still macros, some have very sophisticated features...
atoms -> much like semaphores that you will find everywhere in operating
system code, drivers, ...
agents -> AST's on VMS are a primitive example, you break processing in
small chunks and you "call agents" by triggering events.
You can then build chains of agents each having
executing some specific task.
If you worked enough with libthreads in C you can appreciate the
simplicity of Clojure's STM.
As of multi methods, no examples yet but something might pop in my mind
in a few hours. The words method dispatch sound an alarm
in my head but I can't find why yet.
Dynamic bindings I think are more Lisp specific however they also
represent a great mouse trap for beginners.
I agree that Lisp is great but since the masses are working with
"conventional" languages, they should be able to find
anchors in their sphere of knowledge to integrate Clojure. Not linking
what you learn to something you already know
makes things harder to assimilate.
The other approach of rewriting Java code to Clojure and improving the
code is also a good complementary approach.
Luc
On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 12:34 -0500, David Nolen wrote:
> No offense here to Lispers but when I learn a new language, I
> try to learn it as it is and I make parallels
> and connections with what I know at the moment. Otherwise you
> end up learning more than one thing
> at the same time and it can get quite confusing.
>
> If your experience is made mostly of "conventional" languages
> this path should be easier.
> After that if you are curious you can give a closer look to
> the Lisp heritage.
>
> Luc
>
>
> No arguments with most of what you say of course. However I'm not sure
> what I used to know from "conventional" languages helps much with
> concepts like macros or dynamic vars or multimethods. In fact most of
> my time learning Lisp has been like "Holy ****! If only I had this
> tool/concept 4 years ago! I've been swindled!" ;)
>
>
> David
>
>
> >
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Clojure" group.
To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
