Re: [External] : Emacs website, Lisp, and other

[Madhu <enometh@meer.net>]

* Emanuel Berg <87le186g3f.fsf@dataswamp.org> :
Wrote on Wed, 07 Aug 2024 07:45:40 +0200:
> Drew Adams wrote:
>> And RMS didn't choose Lisp because it was what he was
>> familiar with. There's a little more to it - and to Lisp -
>> than you suggest there. RMS has, himself, written about it.
>> You can take him at his 1981 word about why Lisp is
>> important for Emacs.
>>
>> https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs-paper.html
>>
>>   Comprehension of the user's program reaches its greatest
>>   heights for Lisp programs, because the simplicity of Lisp
>>   syntax makes intelligent editing operations easier to
>>   implement, while the complexity of other languages [...]
>
> Sorry, but we don't have _any_ of those advantages :)

I believe elisp (and lisp) had those advantages when this paper was
written. What has chages is now the berated complexity of other
languages (including syntactic elementss) have been dragged into elisp
over the last decade or two, (some of it through exploiting a notional
anti-common-lisp sentiment).  While the basic sexp structure sull seems
the same, now to understand the "modern code" you have to refer
understand and familiarize yourself and read documentation of the
constructs in the other languages before you can understand elisp.