

All Your Parentheses Are Belong to Us - dpapathanasiou
http://smuglispweeny.blogspot.com/2008/02/all-your-parentheses-are-belong-to-us.html

======
TheTarquin
Man, I really need to get around to learning Lisp. (Of course I've been
telling myself for a few years now.)

Admittedly, as someone who's only ever used C, C++, C# and Java, Lisp seems so
alien that I have a hard time understanding how anyone can do any non-trivial
work in it. Then I look at all the awesome stuff that's been done in it and
how many people are obsessed with it and, well, I definitely need to check it
out at SOME point.

~~~
whacked_new
Just because you mentioned it, check out this primer:
<http://mypage.iu.edu/~colallen/lp/lp.html>

Half way through the first chapter (about 11 pages, which is really shorter
than a single nytimes article) it says something on the lines with "you have
now a turing complete language at your disposal." At that point you can kind
of extrapolate the myriad of possibilities available with the paradigm.

~~~
TheTarquin
Thanks! I'll definitely check this out. Looks like a great starting resource.

------
Shooter
Kenny hinted that he will stop posting to c.l.l. (or at least cut down on his
post frequency) now that he is blogging. If that is true, then "Weeny" just
became my absolute favorite blog of all time ;-)

~~~
pchristensen
I took my first few dives into c.l.l recently (see here
[http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/browse_thread/...](http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/browse_thread/thread/dc401f785faaa808))
and I noticed a couple people (left unnamed) with a poisonous negativity, and
I'd have to say that Ken seemed like a pragmatic realist with a hint of
optimism (kind of like me). I don't even think I would have finished reading
the threads I looked at without Ken's comments.

~~~
Shooter
I was mostly kidding...but not entirely.

I've been a lurker on c.l.l. for years and I've also seen quite a few
interesting threads derailed by Kenny's...uh...UNIQUE sense of humor. The
megalomania thing wears a bit thin, for example. I know quite a few noobs that
have been helped by his pragmatism ("just pick an implementation and stick
with it," "Stop bitching and do something"), but just as many that have left
or put him in their killfile because of his off-center tangents and his
occasional desire to be the new Erik.

You received a warm welcome because you contributed something useful and
didn't just come in bitching and moaning. You were also smart enough to figure
out something you could contribute with your current skill level instead of
just copping out. Like Kenny, I admire that. And I think Kenny is often very
helpful and entertaining. Like many /stereotypical/ geeks, though, I think his
sense of humor and social skills are sometimes a bit off. IMHO, a blog is a
better outlet for his thoughts...I think it will help the signal-to-noise
ratio on c.l.l. and you will still get to read his insights if you subscribe
to his feed. I've already subscribed.

~~~
pchristensen
OK, I think I misunderstood your first comment. My positive opinion of Ken was
based on a few threads (< 20 probably) I followed before the warm welcome I
got on my own thread. Apparently that wasn't enough to see the side of him
that you're talking about.

I couldn't tell if you thought having less Ken on c.l.l would make c.l.l
better, or if having Ken write his own blog made it easier to find Ken.
Apparently it was the first!

------
gibsonf1
Is it just me or do grammatically incorrect prominently placed titles annoy
others as well? (I think Lisp rocks, of course, so I don't have an issue with
the content)

~~~
dpapathanasiou
The blog post title is a play on the "All Your Base Are Belong to Us" meme:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us>

~~~
airhadoken
The point being that grammatical incorrectness is less annoying if it creates
a snowclone.

------
aston
I'm a huge Scheme fan, and I still think Lisp people are overly smug.

