Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Is there anything wrong with Amiga fandom? Amigas were cool as hell. They deserve their cult following. As far as LISPS, they’re cool as hell too. Just because they’re not up to par with corporate backed modern languages doesn’t mean you should use them for the same purposes. Be a bit open minded for a change and you’ll learn a thing or two.


I own an Amiga and use Lisp all the time. But the Amiga's coolness peaked around 1990; Lisp's coolness peaked in the late 70s or so.

Lisp still feels great to use, but it doesn't really have an advantage over modern programming languages the way it did over languages from the 70s/80s, or even stone-knives-and-bearskins Unix development without an IDE. Many of the killer features of Lisp machines could be found in 90s Visual Basic.

It kind of parallels the Amiga situation: by 1994 PCs had closed the gap, offering more CPU power and even a better gaming experience than the Amiga but diehards still keep comparing their boxes to the 5150 PC with CGA to feel superior.

So if you want to use Lisp because it feels good to use -- it's fun to drive like an MGA is -- that's fine, but in the end you're no better off with Lisp than you would be with C# or TypeScript and in some ways you're worse off.




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: