Defensive? No. I don't think Lisp needs defending.
Lisp is an idea. Good ideas need no defending. The invention of Lisp is one of the greatest events in the recent history of symbolic communication. It can be put in the same category as cave drawings, cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and mathematical notation in the sense that they all represent systems of symbolic communication.
My "Pfff..." really comes from not understanding why people would say things like "Lisp is hard to read" when, in truth, it's probably the best tool we humans have for its designated purpose. Lisp emphasizes simplicity and uniformity, which can enhance readability and ease of understanding programs. With a big caveat, though, Lisp's readability improves with practice and familiarity. Many people find Lisp structures to be clear and expressive for symbolic manipulation and functional programming tasks. Okay, I mean I get it. Let's say I can, for example, look inside "Principia Mathematica" and completely find it unreadable. Yeah, I would. But wouldn't it be weird of me to go to a forum for mathematics and tell them that their math is unreadable? They'd probably decide that I'm trolling.
Defensive? No. I don't think Lisp needs defending.
Lisp is an idea. Good ideas need no defending. The invention of Lisp is one of the greatest events in the recent history of symbolic communication. It can be put in the same category as cave drawings, cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and mathematical notation in the sense that they all represent systems of symbolic communication.
My "Pfff..." really comes from not understanding why people would say things like "Lisp is hard to read" when, in truth, it's probably the best tool we humans have for its designated purpose. Lisp emphasizes simplicity and uniformity, which can enhance readability and ease of understanding programs. With a big caveat, though, Lisp's readability improves with practice and familiarity. Many people find Lisp structures to be clear and expressive for symbolic manipulation and functional programming tasks. Okay, I mean I get it. Let's say I can, for example, look inside "Principia Mathematica" and completely find it unreadable. Yeah, I would. But wouldn't it be weird of me to go to a forum for mathematics and tell them that their math is unreadable? They'd probably decide that I'm trolling.