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Comment by jfb | Hacker News Reader

tl;dr: OP likes Eiffel.

A perfectly reasonable post, but not a very interesting one. I could probably write something similar:

  - homoiconicity
  - tail-call elimination
  - s-expressions

Can you tell what my first language was?

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Scheme?

Nope. Must be XML.

XML used to be a very easy way for my coworkers to get a rise out of me. Thankfully, I haven't had to think about it since I left Apple.

Chicago's version of 6.001, straight from SICP.

Clojure.

I'm a little older than that.

Also, the JVM precludes TCE.

Well, there is trampolines: http://clojuredocs.org/clojure_core/1.2.0/clojure.core/tramp...

Which is useful, sure. But when you're conditioned to write in a tail-recursive style by the language environment, it still pulls one out of the flow. That said, I've only written Clojure for amusement, never on anything large, so it could simply be a matter of getting used to new convention.

I'm also come around to strong, static type systems since my Scheme days, but that's a different kettle of fish entirely.

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