Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Allegro CL VS Hy

Compare Allegro CL VS Hy and see what are their differences

Allegro CL logo Allegro CL

Leading commercial Enterprise Development Tools and dynamic object-oriented Common Lisp development tools including Allegro CL with AllegroCache, an Object Database that provides Object Persistence in Lisp, native to the Lisp langauge.

Hy logo Hy

Hy is a wonderful dialect of Lisp that’s embedded in Python.
  • Allegro CL Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-17
  • Hy Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-04-30

Allegro CL features and specs

  • Performance
    Allegro CL is known for its high-performance execution, making it well-suited for complex applications that require efficient computation.
  • Rich Development Environment
    It offers a comprehensive IDE with features like a graphical debugger, advanced code analysis tools, and an interface builder that enhances productivity.
  • Advanced Features
    Allegro CL includes sophisticated features such as an object-oriented database, multi-threading capability, and a robust set of libraries.
  • Dynamic Language
    As a Lisp dialect, it supports dynamic typing, interactive development, and excellent support for iterative and agile software development methodologies.
  • Customer Support
    Franz Inc. provides robust support, including maintenance and professional services, which can be beneficial for enterprises.

Possible disadvantages of Allegro CL

  • Cost
    Allegro CL is a commercial product, which can be expensive compared to free or open-source alternatives, potentially limiting accessibility for hobbyists or small startups.
  • Niche Market
    The use of Lisp and particularly Allegro CL within industry is relatively niche, meaning fewer community resources and third-party integrations compared to more mainstream languages.
  • Learning Curve
    Lisp languages, including Allegro CL, can have a steep learning curve, especially for programmers accustomed to more conventional programming languages.
  • Portability
    While Allegro CL supports various platforms, certain applications or dependencies might not port as seamlessly as with more ubiquitous languages or systems.
  • Modern Language Features
    Although Allegro CL is powerful, it might lack some of the syntactic sugar and modern conveniences found in newer programming languages, potentially affecting developer convenience.

Hy features and specs

  • Python Interoperability
    Hy seamlessly integrates with Python, allowing you to use the entire Python ecosystem while writing your code in a Lisp-like syntax. This interoperability makes it easier for developers familiar with Python to experiment with Lisp's syntax and ideas.
  • Lisp Syntax and Macros
    Hy provides Lisp's powerful macro system and syntax, enabling more expressive and concise code. The ability to create macros can lead to highly customizable and domain-specific solutions.
  • Readability
    For those familiar with Lisp, Hy offers increased readability due to its minimal syntax and symbolic expressions. This can lead to more straightforward reasoning about the code and reduced syntactic noise.
  • Compiles to Python
    Hy code is compiled to Python bytecode, allowing it to run on any environment where Python is available. This ensures good performance and compatibility with existing Python tools and utilities.

Possible disadvantages of Hy

  • Steep Learning Curve
    For developers not familiar with Lisp, Hy's syntax and concepts (like macros) can be difficult to grasp initially. This can slow down development time as developers need to learn new paradigms.
  • Limited Adoption
    Hy is not as widely adopted or supported as some other languages or even other Lisp implementations. This can lead to less community support, fewer third-party libraries written specifically for Hy, and potentially more difficulty finding solutions to problems.
  • Debugging Complexity
    Debugging in Hy can sometimes be more challenging because errors may occur in the compiled Python code rather than the original Hy code, which can complicate traceback and error understanding.
  • Macro Overuse
    While macros are a powerful feature, their misuse can lead to code that is hard to read and maintain. This can become a con if developers do not exercise restraint and best practices in their use.
  • Performance Overhead
    While Hy compiles to Python, the added layer of abstraction and translation may introduce small performance overheads compared to writing natively in Python, especially for performance-critical applications.

Allegro CL videos

New features in Allegro CL's Common Graphics and the IDE

More videos:

  • Review - Yamaha Allegro Clarinet 550AL Review

Hy videos

HY-IMPACT muscle massager review (incredible)

More videos:

  • Review - Cleveland Launcher XL Hy-Wood Review
  • Review - HY Extracts (Jack Herer) Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Allegro CL and Hy)
IDE
52 52%
48% 48
Programming Language
34 34%
66% 66
OOP
38 38%
62% 62
Text Editors
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Hy should be more popular than Allegro CL. It has been mentiond 9 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Allegro CL mentions (1)

  • We need to talk about parentheses
    Sure, mainly I mean like, "Lisp's feature X enabled us to do thing Y that we couldn't do in other languages which let us make baller software Z". I think other languages arguably have this stuff: C/C++/Rust have direct hardware access and speed, JavaScript has the browser, etc. It's a little hard for me to pick out exactly what makes Allegro CL [0] good at the AI thing. They do say you can also write rules in... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago

Hy mentions (9)

  • Python's “Disappointing” Superpowers
    Hy: https://docs.hylang.org/en/stable/ I tend to stick to vanilla python though, mainly because Hy is too much of an hassle for my use cases. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Why Lisp?
    Q: is there any game dev happening in Lisp? A: https://kandria.com/ and https://itch.io/jam/lisp-game-jam-2022 Q: how do I write a website with Lisp? A: https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/web.html#easy-routes-hunchentoot and https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/manual/html_node/Web-Examples.html Q: do I have to use emacs for developing Lisp? A: No, https://github.com/vlime/vlime and... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • How trying new programming languages helped me grow as a software engineer
    I really like Hy because it's fully inter-operable with Python. But its documentation is insufficient for anything moderately complex, and its tooling support is pretty basic. If Hy were well documented and supported I'd use it for all my throwaway scripts and prototyping -- today I use Python for that. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Every programmer ever.
    You're looking for https://docs.hylang.org/en/stable. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Val on Programming: What makes a good REPL?
    I've been using the Hy REPL[0] whenever I've wanted to drop into a python REPL. The lack of whitespace formatting with Hy is great, but it still has access to all of python's libraries. [0] - https://docs.hylang.org/en/stable/. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Allegro CL and Hy, you can also consider the following products

Steel Bank Common Lisp - Steel Bank Common Lisp (SBCL) is a high performance Common Lisp compiler.

CLISP - CLISP is a portable ANSI Common Lisp implementation and development environment by Bruno Haible.

Clozure Common Lisp - Clozure CL (often called CCL for short) is a free Common Lisp implementation with a long history.

Racket Lang - Racket (formerly PLT Scheme) is a modern programming language in the Lisp/Scheme family, suitable...

Armed Bear Common Lisp - Armed Bear Common Lisp (ABCL) is a full implementation of the Common Lisp language featuring both...

CMU Common Lisp - CMUCL is a high-performance, free Common Lisp implementation.