Lisp, The Quantum Programmer's Choice - Computerphile

Quantum computing is so new it needs a flexible language for programming - Robert Smith of Rigetti Quantum Computing explains why he uses this 60 yr old language for cutting-edge work.

Meta-Programming: Coming Soon

This video was filmed and edited by Sean Riley.

[marsgal]

When I first encountered LISP back in my undergrad days the prof described it as an interesting language where you can write interesting programs that do interesting things.

[kMvCN]

I wish that this video would *show* how Lisp is a good language, rather than just saying it can do this, that, and the other thing.

[ElagabalusRex]

Like with many Computerphile videos, I just can't appreciate why this topic is important without concrete examples. Glad to see another video is on the way.

[BoltClevo]

I was waiting for him to write some code on his paper and then the video ended. I didn't learn anything...

[mistress_remilia]

Finally a video with Lisp in it! My favorite language <3

[ZeedijkMike]

I worked with _Auto_ LISP in the late 80'ies early 90ies. I think/presume they are related. It was one of the first languages I actually used.
Strange syntax - but when you get used to it, it's quite fun and amazing. Even made a Mandelbrot Fractal program for AutoCAD. Slow as hell but fun to build.

[theswipr]

Hadn't thought Lisp was that flexible. I'm pretty burnt out from template programming in C++, so I ought to give Lisp a try.

[prism]

For all those wishing the video went into details about why Lisp is useful: Lookup SICP from the legendary MIT curriculum, for which there are also lecture videos by one of the authors Gerald Jay Sussman. The language is timeless so even the old materials are perfectly fine to study today.

[jhbonarius]

Ha, LISP! yes! This was one of the first languages I learned. It was so long ago, I had forgotten the name.

[kewakl]

I am glad that there is a follow-on video. We waited for 6 minutes 12 for any examples to justify his 'fondness' of Lisp. Nothing. Not a bit of code - except a allusion to an assembler-version of a For Loop construct.

[brightshadow]

This is a sermon singing the praises of Lisp, but providing little beyond 'Lisp is great!'. If you want to know more about the actual details of the language, consult another video.

[florianp]

More about how Robert does his coding for quantum computing please!

[carlfranz]

Wow. That was astonishingly non informational.

[eknuds]

Great! Twenty five years ago when I was using XEmacs as my C editor working at a startup I used to have it do things like generate header files. Then after we went public I had it load stock prices from Yahoo and show a ticker on the Modeline.

[ab_synth]

I can't believe I took a couse in university which started with "lisp is a functional language" and YouTube is now informing me otherwise

[Wyklepheph]

Nim is very similar in that you can extend the language and create new syntax and new functionality, and you get the bonus that nim code is a lot nicer to look at

[j-r-hill]

He is saying that Lisp is suitable to quantum computing (qc) because qc is new, and Lisp allows you to extend the language extremely easily.

The bonus video goes into more detail

[Adam-jpbm]

Just want to say, Most quantum programs are not actually using lisp, most are using small, proprietary DSLs for quantum computing, such as IBM's OpenQASM

[PaulPaulPaulson]

I'd like to hear about "Smalltalk" next

[gummansgubbe]

A decade since my loops looked like for(int i=....). Now I am counting cores and dividing into shared/private variables.

I have never seen a quantum computing problem though.