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Clozure Common Lisp VS Hy

Compare Clozure Common Lisp VS Hy and see what are their differences

Clozure Common Lisp logo Clozure Common Lisp

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

Hy logo Hy

Hy is a wonderful dialect of Lisp that’s embedded in Python.
  • Clozure Common Lisp Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-04-15
  • Hy Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-04-30

Clozure Common Lisp features and specs

  • High Performance
    Clozure Common Lisp is known for its high performance, especially in numeric computations and complex applications, due to its efficient compiler and runtime system.
  • Cross-platform Support
    CCL runs on multiple platforms including macOS, Linux, and Windows, facilitating development across different operating systems.
  • Dynamic Typing and Flexibility
    CCL, like other Lisp dialects, offers dynamic typing and flexibility which allows developers to write code that can be easily modified and extended.
  • Interactivity
    CCL provides a powerful interactive development environment with a Read-Eval-Print Loop (REPL), allowing developers to test and debug code on the fly.
  • Compatibility with Common Lisp
    Being a comprehensive implementation of Common Lisp, CCL supports a wide range of Lisp features, making it compatible with existing Common Lisp codebases.
  • Active Community
    CCL has an active community that contributes to its development and support, resulting in a wealth of libraries and resources.

Possible disadvantages of Clozure Common Lisp

  • Limited GUI Libraries
    Clozure Common Lisp's support for graphical user interfaces is limited compared to other platforms, which may require additional effort for developing desktop applications.
  • Smaller User Base
    Compared to more mainstream languages like Python or Java, CCL has a smaller user base, which may result in less community support and fewer third-party libraries.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    As with many Lisp dialects, CCL can have a steep learning curve for developers unfamiliar with Lisp syntax and concepts.
  • Less Documentation
    Although there is documentation available, it may not be as extensive or detailed as that for more widely-used languages, potentially hindering new users.
  • Interoperability Challenges
    While CCL can interoperate with C and other languages, setting this up can be complex and may pose challenges for developers needing seamless integration.

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.

Clozure Common Lisp videos

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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 Clozure Common Lisp and Hy)
Programming Language
41 41%
59% 59
IDE
50 50%
50% 50
OOP
35 35%
65% 65
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 Clozure Common Lisp. 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.

Clozure Common Lisp mentions (6)

  • Graphics Livecoding in Common Lisp
    Unfortunately CCL is Intel only on macOS. (macOS is not on the the main page https://ccl.clozure.com) Otherwise this is the one I would use as it has good Cocoa interoperability. - Source: Hacker News / 13 days ago
  • The IDEs we had 30 years ago and we lost
    The descendant of CCL runs on modern Intel Macs. (It also runs on Linux and Windows but without the IDE.) The modern IDE is quite a bit different from the original. In particular, it no longer has the interface builder. But it's still pretty good. It is now called Clozure Common Lisp (so the acronym is still CCL) and you can find it here: https://ccl.clozure.com/ If you want to run the original that is a bit... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • The Saga of the Closure Compiler, and Why TypeScript Won
    Just for fun there is also Clozure Common Lisp. https://ccl.clozure.com/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Consuming HTTP endpoint using Common Lisp
    I have decided it is time to have some fun and use Common Lisp to create algorithm representation that deals with parallel execution. For this I decided to use Clozure common lisp, put basic Qucklisp there and load some libraries to do this. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Corman Lisp development environment for MS Windows
    CCL also supports windows: https://ccl.clozure.com/. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
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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 Clozure Common Lisp 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.

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

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

ManKai Common Lisp - ManKai Common Lisp (MKCL) aims to be a full implementation of the Common Lisp language in...

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