So, finally I get to introduce the one of the most ingenious programming languages in the programming universe and I assure you, this language has a life of it’s own. If there ever was a language that was designed to evolve and adapt with time, it’s LISP.
What’s the oldest programming language that’s reasonably in use still, you wonder ?
Two contenders are there for that title namely, FORTRAN ( Formula Translation) and LISP ( List Processing ) !!
Though, as you might have guessed I am definitely pro-LISP and as far as FORTRAN is concerned the language has an almost beastly strength to convert Mathematical/ Algorithmic procedures to computer programs, hence the name !
The reason that old languages still stick around is because of two reasons
> Either the task accomplished in the first place was so sophisticated and sufficiently similar to what we would do now, that we don’t bother to change it at all. So, instead we grow various connections ports/ establish various bridges with the existing code and connect it with the language that we have chosen for our purpose.
> The languages, over the years have matured and have been modified so as to “modernize” them as much as possible, though it is not feasible to change the language so much so that it hardly resembles the original implementation in the first place. So, a few domain-specific languages still exist but they operate from the “shadows”. Few prominent examples of these would be C/Cpp and FORTRAN, both of whom were highly used in Scientific Domains, where the bread and butter of the programming language is the ability to process numbers and speed.
Why didn’t I include Lisp in there ?
For a simple reason that, it’s almost as versatile as C/CPP if not more, though to make an OS, one should still focus upon a purely System Language but for our purpose of discovering the joys of programming LISP would do just fine.
You remember I mentioned LISP in my posts about HASKELL and JULIA. You see, LISP is the grand-daddy of the entire programming philosophy that these languages inherit and seek to implement in their own unique styles.
Functional programming paradigm helps the programmer evolve and become a better problem solver !!
Though there is a trade off with these languages as they tend to be slow, JULIA being an outstanding exception to this age-old tradition.
The most intriguing point in the programming language is that it is often called “ A Programmable Programming Language” and with good reason.
Plus, LISP is the only language that completely implements ALL the requirements of being an Object-Oriented Language ( more on this in later posts ).
Surely, you must have seen so many science fiction movies in which the robots eventually learn to think for themselves. Who doesn’t find this possible future outlandish and at the same time have high hopes for this to be accomplished.
Rightly so, the human mind is the Greatest Computer In The Entire Universe. Can you too recall how many times you have spoken something to the Speech-to-Text converter device only to find that it doesn’t quite understand the speech if it is only a wee bit different. It hardly guesses our moods, our anxiety level from our tonal patterns and yet we do it on a daily basis.
Actually, the 26 letter of the English language are combined together to have about 158,000 sound combinations !!
Don’t believe me ??
O.O like challenges=)
Tell me which of the following words seems quite foreign (non- English) to your years
> Skint
> Sbint
I am pretty sure that you have guessed the latter without even giving it much thought. But how ?
How indeed !! That’s the mystery of the Human Brain and we barely understand the organ, rather than our vast database of information about the organ !!
So, it’s quite reasonable to say that computers are never really gonna beat us until we really understand what makes us….us !!
Where does LISP come in, you ask ?
Well, it comes in at a point where we want to make programs which behave in a reasonably intelligent way. It’s not without reason that the language has been the favourite of the Artificial Researches for decades at a stretch.
And if you really look it up on the internet you will still find some strange LISPer trying to save the world ( hopefully without a Cape;) ) on his own, driven by his beliefs and convictions.
Ah, yes !! RIchard Stallman is one of these un-caped heroes. BTW have you chosen your text editor yet ?
Well, you should choose something that is extensible, fast as hell and can be quite economical (keystrokes-wise) so as to get the task done with as little effort as possible.
There are many new ones which have come out recently like Github’s Atom and LightTable and then there are the classic and mature ones like
> Emacs
> Vim
No, we are not even gonna attempt to recommend any one. But make sure you do take a look at them. You see, text editors much like programming languages should be a representation of one’s individuality and they reflect one’s personality. Choose the one’s that “feel” right.
On an end-note I have attached various links down below. Do take a look at these websites, there are a lot of hidden wealth in there.
Till next time,
This is Himanshu Sharma
Signing off=)
