Lisp isn't difficult to read, so I don't understand the question.
This feels like someone who doesn't know French asking "what makes French difficult to read?"
This feels like someone who doesn't know French asking "what makes French difficult to read?"
I find Clojure (a Lisp) more readable than many other languages. It's the style I like for pseudocode. Because I used it a lot. It's familiar.
"Easy" is relative and doesn't mean anything without a subject. Easy for whom?
You'd be surprised how seemingly simple things can be hard for some. As an example, it's extraordinarily difficult for some HN users to read beyond the title and try to understand the reasoning behind it, so they instead settle for showcasing their intellectual prowess by answering the question outright as if that was the thesis. It's a very smart strategy, I must say.
This never occurred to me, you should really think about accompanying dang on his tireless job here, and maybe even get some dough along the way. I appreciate the insightful suggestion.
Feels good to find a perfect opportunity to be witty and snarky, yeah? Well, allow me to murder this vibe of yours. Titles do exist for a reason. This article's title specifically, assumes too much. It's nearly click-baity. Imagine a title like "Why does the Holocaust feel like a hoax?", and then it goes into intricate detail to prove it isn't. Some people still get triggered by the title alone.
Thank you. Perfectly proves my point. "Some people still get triggered by the title alone."
> most people do think Lisp is difficult to read
Correction. Most people unfamiliar with Lisp think that. I've been using Lisp for over a decade, I went to conferences, organized meetups, used Lisp for work and for personal projects, I met many experienced Lispers and I have mentored complete newbies. Not even once have I met someone in person who actively practiced writing and reading Lisp and ever complained about its readability.
What makes Ramayana difficult to read? Sanskrit - you need to learn darn language. What makes Quran difficult to read? Arabic - you need to learn darn language. What makes Lisp... the language, you need to learn the darn language. That's all you ever need to do. And you have to do it once, never twice, never repeatedly. Do it once in your life and that's it. It suddenly becomes not so difficult to read. Just learn the fucking language. Why the fuck complain about anything without first learning the darn thing?
Any language is difficult at first. Nobody ever comes to any PL, opens random piece of code and goes like: "yup, I understand everything". It is called "code" for a reason, it's not "revelation", it takes some effort to grok it.