Here’s a charming post on the Lisp community. I like it for a couple of reasons. The first is that Owmagow wasn’t afraid to dig in and figure things out even though he realized there were already libraries available to do what he needed. Rather than use a black box with no understanding of what was going on, he figured it for himself.
The second, more important thing, is what he had to say about the Lisp community. It’s a common place in the tech world to say that the Lisp community is intolerant and unwelcoming. I’ve never found that and Owmagow agrees. He remarks specifically about how welcoming, helpful, and knowledgeable he found Lispers. He contrasts this with the Java community where he says, “asking for help was usually its own special type of hell.”
It’s probably true that the Lisp community doesn’t suffer fools gladly—especially those who want to do away with parentheses—but I’ve always found them ready to help anyone who comes in good faith. It’s sad, in a way, that this is worth remarking about but the Lisp community does have a reputation—probably undeserved—for being difficult. I hope Owmagow’s post will help change that.