July 14, 2017
2 minute read
January 1st next year marks a full decade of developing exclusively with Common Lisp. While I do not wish to give up this language, I really do wish I could find a second language that is interesting enough for me to learn.
This coming winter marks a full decade of developing exclusively with Common Lisp. While I do not wish to give up this language, I really do wish I could find a second language that is interesting enough for me to learn.
In the past I have tried Rust and Julia, but I did not find either of them enjoyable to use daily, nor mature enough, despite them offering a lot of great ideas. Maybe that will change some day. Recently, I read a book on C# and tried to get settled, but it just didn't sit well with me, particularly the ties to the .NET runtime and hoops one must jump through when using non-Windows platforms. In the end it was possible, but just felt cumbersome and introduced more problems and limitations than I cared for. For now, I think the only way I am going to be happy is if I stick to those beautiful parentheses present in the Lisp family.
Back in April, I decided to start studying Racket in my free time, after reading a post from Fare. Since then, I have read about 90% of the documentation, and set up my editor of choice, but have not done any serious learning yet. This language has promise, being both familiar and boasting some very interesting features. It is also one of the best sources of documentation I have seen for a programming language. I will be spending my free time trying to learn more about Racket.
I am excited to be learning a new language, and I am also excited to find some more interesting languages. If you have any suggestions, let me know by leaving a comment below, and I'll be sure to have a look if I have not done so already.