From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Michael Heerdegen Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: What makes elisp fun ? Date: Wed, 24 May 2017 00:39:43 +0200 Message-ID: <87inkrkxjk.fsf@drachen> References: <96BC1171-45DA-4415-B2E8-3DD4B51AB78A@gmail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1495579225 23436 195.159.176.226 (23 May 2017 22:40:25 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 23 May 2017 22:40:25 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/26.0.50 (gnu/linux) Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org To: Jean-Christophe Helary Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed May 24 00:40:19 2017 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1dDITS-0005rQ-Mb for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 24 May 2017 00:40:18 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:51790 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dDITW-0007Tj-Dd for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 23 May 2017 18:40:22 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:47686) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dDIT2-0007Te-5H for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 23 May 2017 18:39:53 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dDISy-00073B-8N for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 23 May 2017 18:39:52 -0400 Original-Received: from mout.web.de ([212.227.15.4]:49302) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dDISx-00072m-Tx for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 23 May 2017 18:39:48 -0400 Original-Received: from drachen.dragon ([94.216.140.150]) by smtp.web.de (mrweb004 [213.165.67.108]) with ESMTPSA (Nemesis) id 0M3xKs-1e4Zbm1BAo-00rYrG; Wed, 24 May 2017 00:39:44 +0200 In-Reply-To: <96BC1171-45DA-4415-B2E8-3DD4B51AB78A@gmail.com> (Jean-Christophe Helary's message of "Mon, 22 May 2017 21:28:26 +0900") X-Provags-ID: V03:K0:J6MA/7JJWBguFrBmwpBXP63rCg7hqQzoiD8Z+Tuz0d3PyeWutTn YoCtjDI21YMhf6rYP/+hP5VRf1Ogq/ge92VIi36+mF27vHXIbeP1FJ/L6BaC3HRZm/3pBOr yYOkRwUVWRV4PXG9PE4V5x1FjDKVKjznPIlynctCWeC4O+Awi+nLpqwyWnDR1zvZ1BzfuAc aRnB3kfkzetcG2VbNz9aw== X-UI-Out-Filterresults: notjunk:1;V01:K0:O7fjLOM5mvE=:u7lD93UteLUPM9yz1rjvDw O9fIRq5HrUI1hn+9a4TYNFf+0B6E8AjFYEKVjjDk4Ug66KCsrsC8vdCOJyPRUpnTQsHh88XYG yjnVb0G2+v5tMooO14nPwFyKrUdbqvCsFmGSnpbE0vCjjGu2I/LXj9cPOBhtatnyqNlWPJhvG /Blz8N9C2Eo24em3Nho5O455Zd0KOeLGikKSS1Tt62PiO6zeQtXpFFXu6WEQwpqDVuftFb497 aDvGZW7RxPLVGLPLogUJLHSwuwbqSywZ0yq/KW1DWxQuoWviNu+kWQc6c+LwL573s0umvOFkk 5g76vjne9kwdC8tc5xH1aNcFTh4tB0zFBQF9i9/mCz8uIhAd7QIZCYaFNXpXsiOQPeBzDAQ12 QK+dgmUpQvfKSuLVxKL+8lAhyAaFbXYhs8NBKYZkHUzMFUV5tCnk3b3Q71GjFMd76ogzOHWSh rN3PEZJ3Uh4w16BCBxSD/FpfepsppiJhmzAT1WBiRjy6lbhPyPdqnm6SzaSDe3vsiYLMcHm69 gc2CSX5+n4bV1ZBvpt/nnHdx0h8RQWYnFmBdVEE14wK7hByb/9B2ftfJ0PyT2zq4TqftHnYAP 5D+hS3xcrMijfyYmqwV97MdxP/NtP1UX/X30y32Sz06jLkEE68LA7RD61NZcB8M20Y+H4Y2z4 c4RuquE6tuBAlF0ub1zY13ghRRgqJMyvI7LvenIJGWjMer1Nl0dl6SDWl7DvWGbilyZ61jIow BCKsfCKu670UxzJdWqgTdnrwvsgz+bGGSuWGCw6S2OkXdkQcaDFAqMNgAziUT0b68+24Op9q X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] [fuzzy] X-Received-From: 212.227.15.4 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "help-gnu-emacs" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:113153 Archived-At: Jean-Christophe Helary writes: > So, besides for the fact that elisp is the Emacs extension language, > what makes you enthusiastic about it and want to program in it? What > makes elisp fun for you ? Lisp programs are represented as Lisp objects (lists). You can manipulate them with ordinary means of the language just like any other list. You can do this with macros. That's what's making Lisp and it's macros unique, among its semantical simplicity: It's a progammable programming language, and the meta programming language is the same language again. Emacs offers a perfect programming environment for Elisp, and OTOH is itself programmable in Elisp. These three aspects form a unique triad that you can find nowhere else. No "besides" needed. But besides... If you look only at the language Emacs Lisp, it is probably not much cooler than other Lisps. It has some weaknesses even, though there has been improvements in the last time (introduction of lexical binding for example). The most important point for most of Elisp developers is probably that they can do something useful for real-life with their language (or hobby), something they can use personally. That you program stuff for an Editor makes Elisp quite interesting, because you do stuff with it that you probably don't do with other Lisps. If you want to count Fibonacci numbers, you still can use Scheme... And you can do all this in very cool ways, because you can do it with a Lisp! For example, I recently discovered that you can do very cool things with streams (aka delayed lists) (they are not built in, but hey, you have a programmable programming language, so they have been added with very few lines Elisp). Elisp makes it possible to invent very cool stuff in very cool ways, and other people may want use your work. Elisp let's you be very creative. Michael.