2003/10/06

Another nice analogy between programming language & vehicles.

From Ray Dillinger: Re: CL & Practicality:

Common Lisp and Scheme are both like All-terrain vehicles; it's just that Scheme is more like a dune-buggy or ATV and CL is more like a bulldozer. The surveyors and explorers are going to go out with light nimble vehicles that can handle the terrain and find routes to problem solutions that exactly fit the needs of the problem. But no two of them are likely to find exactly the same route, or to be able to share substantial parts of the routes they find, except that they will talk with each other about the terrain and features.

When civil engineers want to build roads they follow with earthmoving equipment, which can also "handle" the terrain, although in a different way, and create routes that are a lot easier for later people to drive on or switch between.

Tags: Programming, Lisp, Scheme