Hy vs Common Lisp
When comparing Hy vs Common Lisp, the Slant community recommends Common Lisp for most people. In the question“What are the best (productivity-enhancing, well-designed, and concise, rather than just popular or time-tested) programming languages?” Common Lisp is ranked 4th while Hy is ranked 43rd. 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 Python interop
Hy compiles to Python's abstract syntax trees. Python can import Hy modules, and Hy can import Python modules.
Pro Easier to read
Distinguished between arrays (or vectors) and function calls by using [] and (), respectively.
Pro Copyfree and open source
Uses the MIT (expat) license.
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.