April 26, 2026
Ctrl+V your nostalgia
Mine, a Coalton and Common Lisp IDE
Throwback-cool Lisp app drops: cheers for simplicity, side‑eye for “no plugins”
TLDR: A new all-in-one Lisp app called “mine” promises old-school simplicity with no plugins or tracking, sparking excitement and skepticism. Fans love the QBASIC vibes, while veterans point to past flops like Light Table and debate whether a one‑way, non‑extensible tool can endure.
New kid “mine” just tunneled into the programming world promising QBASIC‑era ease for Coalton and Common Lisp, and the comments are partying like it’s 1995. The pitch: a single download for Windows, Mac, and Linux with live code tinkering, a built‑in debugger, autocomplete, and—cue applause—no ads, no tracking, no surprise internet calls. It even teaches you how to wrangle those famous parentheses. Fans latched onto the retro vibes immediately, with one user swooning over the line about being “as easy as QBASIC or Borland Turbo” and gushing, “Woah this is awesome.” The simplicity stance—one look, one layout, no plugins, no emulations of other editors—had beginners cheering that the on‑ramp finally isn’t a mountain.
Then came the plot twist. Veterans rolled in with receipts from the “seen it before” bin: remember Light Table? It was shiny… until it wasn’t. Skeptics wonder if a no‑plugins, one‑way workflow can really last. Meanwhile, meta‑drama sprinkled in as another commenter noted this was HN’s “second‑chance” revival thread—because of course a Lisp editor launch gets a sequel. The memes wrote themselves: “No telemetry? It won’t snitch.” “One editor to rule them all—literally.” Love it or side‑eye it, the community’s split between “finally, less setup” and “talk to us in a year.” Links: post and HN chat.
Key Points
- •“mine” is a new IDE for Coalton and Common Lisp, offered as a single-download application for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- •It integrates the interactive Lisp workflow (REPL, hot-reloading, on-the-fly debugging) and includes professional features like diagnostics, debugger, jump-to-definition, autocomplete, and a native compiler/executable builder.
- •Built-in Quicklisp setup and project creation aim to streamline onboarding and reduce toolchain complexity.
- •The IDE is intentionally non-extensible with minimal customization, has no telemetry/ads/hidden connections, does not auto-check for updates, and supports only Coalton and Common Lisp.
- •It was created to lower the barrier to trying Coalton compared to the Emacs+SLIME stack and other traditional Common Lisp toolchains.