Woops - Lisp IDE using LTK

2 points by such_a_casual 8 years ago | 6 comments

A month full of Sundays ago I looked at the shitty mess that I was and decided that it was time to stop whoring around, one language after the other, c#, c++, ruby, python, java, javascript so many sleepless nights banging it out, just to wake up empty inside. Never really feeling like a real man. I mean programmer. To progress as a programmer, I needed to pick one language and stick with it long enough to really understand it. I knew this could take a while. Like years. So it was important and I took my time making the decision.

I ended up choosing Lisp.

That was a while ago, and while I’m still not a good programmer (by the only metrics that matter (1)), I’ve started my journey on not being a shitty one.

But this isn’t a story about programming languages or becoming a good programmer.

This is about Lisp.

Yesterday, I wrote a very simple IDE (using a fantastic GUI wrapper for tk called LTK (2)). The application is just two text boxes. One where you type in code. And a second where the output of the code is shown to you in real time. The code is less than 50 lines. It’s a simple toy.

[video from yesterday] https://streamable.com/98u01

Today, I was on my way home, thinking about how I could get the IDE to update itself. And then I thought, what if the IDE could update itself IN REAL TIME.

Then I realized it could.

Already.

[video from today] https://streamable.com/0oltt

Lisp.

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(1) My own.

(2) http://www.peter-herth.de/ltk/

informatimago 8 years ago |

And you've seen nothing. Try out the functions APROPOS and INSPECT !

gus_massa 8 years ago |

Please change the title to something more clear, like "A Lisp IDE written in LTK", perhaps add "real time" somewhere in the title.

Also, for future post I suggest avoiding to the bad tone about other languages. Not everyone is enlighten. (And one day you will discover Racket.)

eschutte2 8 years ago | |

I didn't notice any disparagement toward the other languages, only toward a kind of code dilettantism. But I can't tell from the video - what does this have to do with Lisp? Wouldn't any non-sandboxed repl do this?

such_a_casual 8 years ago | |

I feel like comparing Racket to Common Lisp is an insult to all of the people who worked on Common Lisp. I don't think the makers of Racket would have the hubris to compare their work to that of the authors of Common Lisp.

oldandtired 8 years ago | | |

Is that like comparing a ford to a holden? Or a merc to a beamer?