[HN Gopher] Scheme in the browser: A Hoot of a tale
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       Scheme in the browser: A Hoot of a tale
        
       Author : nickmain
       Score  : 118 points
       Date   : 2023-10-10 15:23 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (spritely.institute)
 (TXT) w3m dump (spritely.institute)
        
       | cpill wrote:
       | this layout is terrible on a phone
        
       | beepbooptheory wrote:
       | Unreasonably excited about this. Seems like such an incredible
       | team with the right kind of goals, doing something novel and cool
       | for, it seems, me personally.
        
       | tannhaeuser wrote:
       | I'm personally not a fan, but still am hesitating to point out
       | that Scheme was, in fact, chosen as the language for styling and
       | transforming SGML (DSSSL, still available as OpenJade), and I
       | believe also Brendan Eich's first choice, presumably because of
       | the DSSSL precedent. But then supposedly his bosses told him it
       | has to be more like Java, at least in name.
       | 
       | I'm not a big believer in syntax (and think LISPy language will
       | always remain niche, which is part of its appeal), but one thing
       | I'd imagine is that LISP/Scheme could've helped to prevent the
       | syntax excess that is CSS, simply because there were already
       | plausible styling examples for eg. classic stateful recto/verso
       | print formatting, and LISP's homoiconicity would've make CSS
       | syntax look kindof gross.
        
         | _a_a_a_ wrote:
         | IIRC DSSSL influenced XSLT. I personally consider XSLT an
         | abomination.
         | 
         | Separately, your criticism of lisp syntax is pure bikeshedding,
         | and depressing to see it brought up again and again here (and
         | I'm not a lisper). If you can never see below the surface
         | you're always going to be stuck at the shallow end.
        
         | Zambyte wrote:
         | > and think LISPy language will always remain niche, which is
         | part of its appeal
         | 
         | As someone who uses Scheme regularly and follows Scheme
         | communities fairly actively, I think most people who use Scheme
         | and other LISP dialects would disagree. People often (I think
         | only half jokingly) talk about the possible "Utopia" we missed
         | out on if LISP has won. The word "successful" is often used to
         | refer to implementations or dialects based on how much use they
         | have.
         | 
         | I think the fact that LISP is niche is actually a negative for
         | most of the community, not part of the appeal.
        
       | schemescape wrote:
       | Are there specific Guile code bases that are motivating this
       | work?
        
         | davexunit wrote:
         | Yes, Spritely's Goblins distributed programming environment. We
         | are working on making it run in web browsers.
         | https://spritely.institute/goblins/
        
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       (page generated 2023-10-10 23:00 UTC)