When comparing Brainfuck vs Common Lisp, the Slant community recommends Common Lisp for most people. In the question“What is the best programming language to learn first?” Common Lisp is ranked 19th while Brainfuck is ranked 76th. The most important reason people chose Common Lisp is:
Almost all aspects of the language are designed with interactive/repl use in mind.
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Pros
Pro Great exercice for your brain
If you ever succeed to use it at least once, whatever it does, you will never be afraid to learn any other programming language.
Pro Very good introduction in geek communities
Say you made a Brainfuck program once, and count how many geeks you will attract.
Pro Designed to challenge and amuse programmers
Rather than have a practical application, Brainfuck is an esoteric language for the purpose of challenging programmers who want to code in a more unusual language.
Pro Carefully designed for interactive use
Almost all aspects of the language are designed with interactive/repl use in mind.
Pro Very Powerful REPL with SLIME
SLIME (Superior Lisp Interaction Mode for Emacs).
Pro Condition/restart system
It is easy to recover from errors. Error resolution can be determined by the user at the REPL.
Pro Image based runtime
The state of the program may be saved and reloaded as an image, supporting safer modification of the running program. New code may be compiled into the image as the program runs, while late binding ensures that symbol redefinitions take effect throughout the program.
Pro Almost as fast as, or faster than, C
Some compilers such as SBCL can be faster than C or other low-level languages, and most compilers can generate fast native code.
Cons
Con Esoteric language
Brainfuck is by design extremely difficult to use. This makes it un-learnable to beginners.
Con Impractical language, used only as a toy
It won't get you a job. It is not used in any practical application.
Con It's a joke language
Con Almost as bad as Python, but less adopted.
It's a joke, just like Python, but at least brainfuck admits it ;-)
Con R-rated name
It's difficult to talk about in polite company.