Show HN: I wrote a technical history book on Lisp

A new history book about Lisp—one of the oldest, quirkiest programming languages—dropped, and the comments immediately turned into a time‑capsule reunion and a mini flame war. The author, Cees de Groot, says you can sample it on Amazon and buy it on Lulu (to give the creators a bigger cut), and invites feedback in an old‑school chat room (IRC), plus Mastodon and Lemmy. The crowd showed up with love and links: one fan pointed everyone to a classic paper by Guy Steele and Richard Gabriel, “The Evolution of Lisp”, while another spun a nostalgic yarn about coding on a Kaypro in the mid‑80s. Nostalgia meter: pegged.

But the drama? Oh, it delivered. Design critics swooped in to say the cover needs a pro makeover—“Five years of work deserves a better outfit,” one sighed—kicking off the inevitable “content vs. packaging” debate. Then came the Clojure scare: one commenter skimmed the index and cried “no Clojure?”, suggesting the book skipped the most popular modern Lisp. Seconds later, another reader chimed in: there is a Clojure chapter, thank you very much—and asked whether the author interviewed Clojure creator Rich Hickey. Cue the classic Lisp scene: half museum tour, half mosh pit, with jokes like “TCL is Lisp backwards,” sighs about universities ignoring history, and a community that still argues with passion about parentheses and presentation. In short: the book’s out, the parens are back, and the comments are the real show.