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Practical Common Lisp

Google TechTalks · talk · Watch on YouTube

Functional programmingProgramming language design

What it is

Peter Seibel's 2006 Google TechTalk on Practical Common Lisp, framed by the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and Paul Graham's Blub paradox. It shows Lisp features such as condition restarts and its generic-function object system.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN remembers it as the memorable explanation of restarts and multiple dispatch, referenced whenever those features come up.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 4 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2011, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “Restarts are really nice, I first heard about them in”

    Introduces Lisp restarts.

    tdrgabi, 2011-05 · Recommendation · in “The German School of Lisp ("Fluchtpunkt Lisps")”

  2. “explains that pretty well”

    Explains Common Lisp's generic-method object system versus C++/Java.

    jlg23, 2015-07 · Recommendation · in “Use Cases for Change-Class in Common Lisp”

  3. “I will forever think of this talk by Peter Siebel”

    Memorable talk associated with multiple dispatch.

    ethagnawl, 2025-06 · Recommendation · in “Ovld – Efficient and featureful multiple dispatch for Python”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: common lisp, multiple dispatch, condition restarts, peter seibel, language design

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