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

Exactly what I thought when I read the article. It sounds like he's heard that Lisp is cool, so he pretends he is a Lisp expert, but he has no clue about that (or Knuth). Sad.

Anyway, I was thinking he meant funcall instead of progn, but in that case he should just have written (do-politics).

Finally, shouldn't that be pointy-haired-boss-p? ;)



shouldn't that be pointy-haired-boss-p? ;)

Heh. I almost thought so too, but the variable could be referencing the boss himself rather than information about his existence. Somehow I think it's more Lispy that way.

And (progn 'do-politics) does look like a mistake for (do-politics) but then again I kind of like the fact that the form evaluates to a useless symbol in the pointy-haired case.

Really, there are all kinds of things one could say about this little expression. One could write an entire critique. :)


Upon further reflection, how about:

  (if (pointy-haired-p boss) ...
Ah, coding by committee. How pointy-haired of us :)


Must I have a boss?

  (if (and boss (pointy-haired-p boss)) ...
coding by committee. How pointy-haired of us

I object. This is sarcastic pair programming!




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

Search: