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hargettp / hh-web

Framework for building modern web applications in Lisp
MIT License
36 stars 4 forks source link

Some questions #3

Closed Jonovono closed 11 years ago

Jonovono commented 11 years ago

I am very new to lisp development and have been looking to pick up a functional language for web development. Some questions:

  1. Can you compare this to weblocks and the other main common lisp web frameworks
  2. Why this over other languages like Noir for Clojure, etc.
  3. Does this come with support for ajax?

That's all for now. Thanks.

hargettp commented 11 years ago

Hi, thanks for your interest in hh-web!

First, a couple of things: while functional programming is quite doable in Lisp, I would not say that Lisp is itself a functional language. Further, I've written hh-web in Common Lisp, a rich dialect of Lisp that really, I think, makes symbolic programming natural. In some ways, both symbolic and functional programming are very powerful tools, both suitable as a powerful foundation for programming; they are, however, fundamentally different in their core.

Regarding hh-web specifically and the questions you have asked:

Re weblocks and other frameworks: while I may have lost touch, I am not aware of too many frameworks that resemble hh-web. Both weblocks and hh-web come from different places and solve different problems. The former emphasizes continuation passing style for developing web applications; hh-web started as a way of solving the classic HTML generation problem faced by all web frameworks. I extended hh-web to incorporate successful features that I saw in frameworks such as Django and Rails (eg routing) and more or less built what I needed as I went.

Re Noir or Clojure: while Clojure has many things to commend it, it is still bound by the JVM on which it runs. Common Lisp has many native implementations (I use SBCL), so I know that my application is running "close to the metal," without the overhead of a JVM but still having the full power of Lisp.

Re Ajax : I have used Ajax with hh-web. I had some bits written at one point to make Ajax a bit easier to use, but I have not yet documented them or truly published them. Nothing at all prevents the use of Ajax; I just haven't evolved hh-web to offer any unique features in that area.

I hope some of the above helps, and definitely dive into Lisp—you'll be a better programmer for it!

:)

On Apr 1, 2013, at 9:28 PM, Jonovono notifications@github.com wrote:

I am very new to lisp development and have been looking to pick up a functional language for web development. Some questions:

  1. Can you compare this to weblocks and the other main common lisp web frameworks
  2. Why this over other languages like Noir for Clojure, etc.
  3. Does this come with support for ajax?

That's all for now. Thanks.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/hargettp/hh-web/issues/3 .

Jonovono commented 11 years ago

Awesome! Thanks for the quick reply. I will for sure keep following it :) I am going through a few of the different lisp dialects and seeing which one I like the best.