{"slug": "lem", "name": "Lem", "category": "editors", "category_name": "Editors and IDEs", "description": "Emacs-like text editor written in and extensible with Common Lisp.", "recommenders": 6, "commenters": 9, "warners": 1, "score": 5.081, "rising": -0.64, "first": "2025-11-06", "latest": "2026-10-28", "why": "HN commenters like Lem as an Emacs-style editor written in and extensible with Common Lisp, which draws on a richer ecosystem than Elisp, and one user reports it is more performant than GNU Emacs.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 2, "compare": 1, "warn": 1}, "spark": [1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 3, 0, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": ["Common Lisp core", "Emacs replacement"], "caveat": "Fewer features", "short_quote": "It's an \"emacs\" but not a clone of GNU Emacs.  It's written in Common Lisp, extensible in Common Lisp and it's way more performant than GNU Emacs.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/lem-project/lem", "official_url": "https://lem-project.github.io/", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["Lem", "lem"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters like Lem as an Emacs-style editor written in and extensible with Common Lisp", "cites": [{"id": 777426944, "item_id": 48589184, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589184", "by": "dismalaf", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's an \"emacs\" but not a clone of GNU Emacs.  It's written in Common Lisp, extensible in Common Lisp and it's way more performant than GNU Emacs.", "excerpt": "I use Lem. It's an \"emacs\" but not a clone of GNU Emacs. It's written in Common Lisp, extensible in Common Lisp and it's way more performant than GNU Emacs. Obviously less features and plugins but for my needs (writing Lisp code mostly) it's great.", "context": "writes mostly Lisp code", "use_case": "writing Lisp code", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs 31 Is Around the Corner: The Changes I'm Daily Driving"}, {"id": 784652113, "item_id": 49040757, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49040757", "by": "iLemming", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Perhaps, the time to seriously consider Lem is almost (?), already (?) here.", "excerpt": "That's plausible and isn't too hard to imagine. The value of Emacs is not the concrete implementation of it - let's be honest, GNU Emacs is not void of enormously annoying warts. The value of Emacs is the nice foundational Lisp layer - something Lem does provide. One side of me wants to remain skeptical - knowing how much stuff there exists in Org-mode and Magit - piles and piles of different workflows thousands of u", "context": "", "use_case": "Emacs alternative", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs Is a Lispboard"}, {"id": 733328560, "item_id": 45833035, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45833035", "by": "positron26", "date": "2025-11-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have a hope for the Common Lisp based Lem.", "excerpt": "Emacs took a wrong fork in its own metaphor. At length, being able to take code and libraries between production and the editor would be a game changer. While Elisp has design features that make sense, in the tradeoffs, I think it lost to every other lisp with a general purpose programming ecosystem. I have a hope for the Common Lisp based Lem. All we need is to coordinate enough signal for potential users to feel it", "context": "", "use_case": "Common Lisp editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "How I am deeply integrating Emacs"}]}, {"text": ", which draws on a richer ecosystem than Elisp", "cites": [{"id": 784386992, "item_id": 49024187, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49024187", "by": "xvilka", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Something like Lem[1][2] could go even further because of the richer CommonLisp ecosystem compared to Elisp one.", "excerpt": "Something like Lem[1][2] could go even further because of the richer CommonLisp ecosystem compared to Elisp one. [1] https://lem-project.github.io/ [2] https://github.com/lem-project/lem", "context": "", "use_case": "Lisp-based editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs Is a Lispboard"}, {"id": 733328560, "item_id": 45833035, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45833035", "by": "positron26", "date": "2025-11-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have a hope for the Common Lisp based Lem.", "excerpt": "Emacs took a wrong fork in its own metaphor. At length, being able to take code and libraries between production and the editor would be a game changer. While Elisp has design features that make sense, in the tradeoffs, I think it lost to every other lisp with a general purpose programming ecosystem. I have a hope for the Common Lisp based Lem. All we need is to coordinate enough signal for potential users to feel it", "context": "", "use_case": "Common Lisp editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "How I am deeply integrating Emacs"}]}, {"text": ", and one user reports it is more performant than GNU Emacs.", "cites": [{"id": 777426944, "item_id": 48589184, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589184", "by": "dismalaf", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's an \"emacs\" but not a clone of GNU Emacs.  It's written in Common Lisp, extensible in Common Lisp and it's way more performant than GNU Emacs.", "excerpt": "I use Lem. It's an \"emacs\" but not a clone of GNU Emacs. It's written in Common Lisp, extensible in Common Lisp and it's way more performant than GNU Emacs. Obviously less features and plugins but for my needs (writing Lisp code mostly) it's great.", "context": "writes mostly Lisp code", "use_case": "writing Lisp code", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs 31 Is Around the Corner: The Changes I'm Daily Driving"}]}, {"text": " The most common caveat is that it has fewer features, plugins and mature UX than GNU Emacs", "cites": [{"id": 777426944, "item_id": 48589184, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589184", "by": "dismalaf", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's an \"emacs\" but not a clone of GNU Emacs.  It's written in Common Lisp, extensible in Common Lisp and it's way more performant than GNU Emacs.", "excerpt": "I use Lem. It's an \"emacs\" but not a clone of GNU Emacs. It's written in Common Lisp, extensible in Common Lisp and it's way more performant than GNU Emacs. Obviously less features and plugins but for my needs (writing Lisp code mostly) it's great.", "context": "writes mostly Lisp code", "use_case": "writing Lisp code", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs 31 Is Around the Corner: The Changes I'm Daily Driving"}, {"id": 804483777, "item_id": 50280236, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50280236", "by": "Karrot_Kream", "date": "2026-10-28", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Lem, in comparison, is building up all the UX associated with a \"live programming environment\"", "excerpt": "Elisp is homoiconic and has a strong culture of REPL development, but really the thing that makes elisp so nice is that it has decades of use to iterate on an editor. There's an attempt to do this with Common Lisp that's quite cool, called Lem, but the sheer amount of person-years that have gone into making emacs and elisp a conjoined system makes it a pleasure to use and iterate on. Lem, in comparison, is building u", "context": "", "use_case": "Common Lisp editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs Turns 50"}]}, {"text": ", and one commenter found it never worked well for them.", "cites": [{"id": 766479762, "item_id": 47904985, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904985", "by": "armitron", "date": "2026-04-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "messy things like Lem that never really worked very well for me", "excerpt": "If you're a power user, the sooner you learn Emacs the better as the synergies with any Lisp language (particularly Common Lisp) are simply too strong to be ignored and there is no contemporary alternative that rivals it. For new users, this looks like a welcome alternative to messy things like Lem that never really worked very well for me.", "context": "", "use_case": "Common Lisp editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mine, an IDE for Coalton and Common Lisp"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Common Lisp core", "summary": "Commenters value that Lem is built on and extensible in Common Lisp, with a richer ecosystem than Elisp.", "quotes": [{"id": 777426944, "item_id": 48589184, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589184", "by": "dismalaf", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's an \"emacs\" but not a clone of GNU Emacs.  It's written in Common Lisp, extensible in Common Lisp and it's way more performant than GNU Emacs.", "excerpt": "I use Lem. It's an \"emacs\" but not a clone of GNU Emacs. It's written in Common Lisp, extensible in Common Lisp and it's way more performant than GNU Emacs. Obviously less features and plugins but for my needs (writing Lisp code mostly) it's great.", "context": "writes mostly Lisp code", "use_case": "writing Lisp code", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs 31 Is Around the Corner: The Changes I'm Daily Driving"}, {"id": 784386992, "item_id": 49024187, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49024187", "by": "xvilka", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Something like Lem[1][2] could go even further because of the richer CommonLisp ecosystem compared to Elisp one.", "excerpt": "Something like Lem[1][2] could go even further because of the richer CommonLisp ecosystem compared to Elisp one. [1] https://lem-project.github.io/ [2] https://github.com/lem-project/lem", "context": "", "use_case": "Lisp-based editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs Is a Lispboard"}, {"id": 733328560, "item_id": 45833035, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45833035", "by": "positron26", "date": "2025-11-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have a hope for the Common Lisp based Lem.", "excerpt": "Emacs took a wrong fork in its own metaphor. At length, being able to take code and libraries between production and the editor would be a game changer. While Elisp has design features that make sense, in the tradeoffs, I think it lost to every other lisp with a general purpose programming ecosystem. I have a hope for the Common Lisp based Lem. All we need is to coordinate enough signal for potential users to feel it", "context": "", "use_case": "Common Lisp editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "How I am deeply integrating Emacs"}]}, {"label": "Emacs replacement", "summary": "Some users say they miss little from Emacs and now use Lem more than GNU Emacs.", "quotes": [{"id": 784488320, "item_id": 49030520, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49030520", "by": "cmrdporcupine", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There's very little I miss when I use lem, TBH.", "excerpt": "Lem already has a clone of legit. And there's org-mode-alikes, as well. There's very little I miss when I use lem, TBH.", "context": "", "use_case": "Lisp-based editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs Is a Lispboard"}, {"id": 777385410, "item_id": 48586588, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48586588", "by": "cmrdporcupine", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "lately I use lem more than I do GNU emacs", "excerpt": "Vertico feels like a must-have to me these days. I also like to have treemacs installed. Apart from that, I don't have a lot I insist on, and my used emacs package space keeps shrinking. That said lately I use lem more than I do GNU emacs.", "context": "Emacs user", "use_case": "text editor", "switched_from": "GNU Emacs", "story": "Emacs 31 Is Around the Corner: The Changes I'm Daily Driving"}, {"id": 795259536, "item_id": 49703721, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49703721", "by": "whois", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "But, long term Lem is probably the move.", "excerpt": "I keep meaning to check out Lem. It just pains me having to get my setup set up all over again. But, long term Lem is probably the move.", "context": "", "use_case": "editor", "switched_from": "Emacs", "story": "NEO Emacs \u2013 GPU-Accelerated Emacs Powered by Rust"}]}, {"label": "Org/Magit alternatives", "summary": "Lem already has a legit (Magit-like) clone and org-mode-alikes.", "quotes": [{"id": 784488320, "item_id": 49030520, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49030520", "by": "cmrdporcupine", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There's very little I miss when I use lem, TBH.", "excerpt": "Lem already has a clone of legit. And there's org-mode-alikes, as well. There's very little I miss when I use lem, TBH.", "context": "", "use_case": "Lisp-based editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs Is a Lispboard"}]}, {"label": "Performance", "summary": "One user says it is much more performant than GNU Emacs.", "quotes": [{"id": 777426944, "item_id": 48589184, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589184", "by": "dismalaf", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's an \"emacs\" but not a clone of GNU Emacs.  It's written in Common Lisp, extensible in Common Lisp and it's way more performant than GNU Emacs.", "excerpt": "I use Lem. It's an \"emacs\" but not a clone of GNU Emacs. It's written in Common Lisp, extensible in Common Lisp and it's way more performant than GNU Emacs. Obviously less features and plugins but for my needs (writing Lisp code mostly) it's great.", "context": "writes mostly Lisp code", "use_case": "writing Lisp code", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs 31 Is Around the Corner: The Changes I'm Daily Driving"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Fewer features", "summary": "It has fewer features and plugins than GNU Emacs.", "quotes": [{"id": 777426944, "item_id": 48589184, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589184", "by": "dismalaf", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's an \"emacs\" but not a clone of GNU Emacs.  It's written in Common Lisp, extensible in Common Lisp and it's way more performant than GNU Emacs.", "excerpt": "I use Lem. It's an \"emacs\" but not a clone of GNU Emacs. It's written in Common Lisp, extensible in Common Lisp and it's way more performant than GNU Emacs. Obviously less features and plugins but for my needs (writing Lisp code mostly) it's great.", "context": "writes mostly Lisp code", "use_case": "writing Lisp code", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs 31 Is Around the Corner: The Changes I'm Daily Driving"}, {"id": 784652113, "item_id": 49040757, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49040757", "by": "iLemming", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Perhaps, the time to seriously consider Lem is almost (?), already (?) here.", "excerpt": "That's plausible and isn't too hard to imagine. The value of Emacs is not the concrete implementation of it - let's be honest, GNU Emacs is not void of enormously annoying warts. The value of Emacs is the nice foundational Lisp layer - something Lem does provide. One side of me wants to remain skeptical - knowing how much stuff there exists in Org-mode and Magit - piles and piles of different workflows thousands of u", "context": "", "use_case": "Emacs alternative", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs Is a Lispboard"}]}, {"label": "Less mature UX", "summary": "Lem is still building the live-programming UX that Emacs and Elisp have refined over decades.", "quotes": [{"id": 804483777, "item_id": 50280236, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50280236", "by": "Karrot_Kream", "date": "2026-10-28", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Lem, in comparison, is building up all the UX associated with a \"live programming environment\"", "excerpt": "Elisp is homoiconic and has a strong culture of REPL development, but really the thing that makes elisp so nice is that it has decades of use to iterate on an editor. There's an attempt to do this with Common Lisp that's quite cool, called Lem, but the sheer amount of person-years that have gone into making emacs and elisp a conjoined system makes it a pleasure to use and iterate on. Lem, in comparison, is building u", "context": "", "use_case": "Common Lisp editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs Turns 50"}]}, {"label": "Reliability", "summary": "One commenter called it messy and said it never worked well for them.", "quotes": [{"id": 766479762, "item_id": 47904985, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904985", "by": "armitron", "date": "2026-04-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "messy things like Lem that never really worked very well for me", "excerpt": "If you're a power user, the sooner you learn Emacs the better as the synergies with any Lisp language (particularly Common Lisp) are simply too strong to be ignored and there is no contemporary alternative that rivals it. For new users, this looks like a welcome alternative to messy things like Lem that never really worked very well for me.", "context": "", "use_case": "Common Lisp editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mine, an IDE for Coalton and Common Lisp"}]}, {"label": "Switching cost", "summary": "Rebuilding an existing Emacs setup is a barrier to trying it.", "quotes": [{"id": 795259536, "item_id": 49703721, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49703721", "by": "whois", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "But, long term Lem is probably the move.", "excerpt": "I keep meaning to check out Lem. It just pains me having to get my setup set up all over again. But, long term Lem is probably the move.", "context": "", "use_case": "editor", "switched_from": "Emacs", "story": "NEO Emacs \u2013 GPU-Accelerated Emacs Powered by Rust"}]}], "who": [{"by": "dismalaf", "context": "writes mostly Lisp code", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589184", "date": "2026-06-18"}, {"by": "cmrdporcupine", "context": "Emacs user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48586588", "date": "2026-06-18"}, {"by": "eggy", "context": "Lisp programmer, decades of experience", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47917455", "date": "2026-04-26"}], "tags": ["for Lisp programmers", "for Emacs users"], "use_cases": ["common lisp editor", "lisp-based editor", "common lisp editing", "editor", "emacs alternative", "writing lisp code"], "compared": [{"slug": "emacs", "name": "Emacs", "co": 11, "switched_from": 2, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "vim", "name": "Vim", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "visual-studio-code", "name": "Visual Studio Code", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "org-mode", "name": "Org mode", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49021786", "title": "Emacs Is a Lispboard", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48584135", "title": "Emacs 31 Is Around the Corner: The Changes I'm Daily Driving", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47903173", "title": "Mine, an IDE for Coalton and Common Lisp", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50273171", "title": "Emacs Turns 50", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49702779", "title": "NEO Emacs \u2013 GPU-Accelerated Emacs Powered by Rust", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45832341", "title": "How I am deeply integrating Emacs", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"warn": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 3}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {"compare": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804483777, "item_id": 50280236, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50280236", "by": "Karrot_Kream", "date": "2026-10-28", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Lem, in comparison, is building up all the UX associated with a \"live programming environment\"", "excerpt": "Elisp is homoiconic and has a strong culture of REPL development, but really the thing that makes elisp so nice is that it has decades of use to iterate on an editor. There's an attempt to do this with Common Lisp that's quite cool, called Lem, but the sheer amount of person-years that have gone into making emacs and elisp a conjoined system makes it a pleasure to use and iterate on. Lem, in comparison, is building u", "context": "", "use_case": "Common Lisp editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs Turns 50"}, {"id": 795259536, "item_id": 49703721, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49703721", "by": "whois", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "But, long term Lem is probably the move.", "excerpt": "I keep meaning to check out Lem. It just pains me having to get my setup set up all over again. But, long term Lem is probably the move.", "context": "", "use_case": "editor", "switched_from": "Emacs", "story": "NEO Emacs \u2013 GPU-Accelerated Emacs Powered by Rust"}, {"id": 784652113, "item_id": 49040757, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49040757", "by": "iLemming", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Perhaps, the time to seriously consider Lem is almost (?), already (?) here.", "excerpt": "That's plausible and isn't too hard to imagine. The value of Emacs is not the concrete implementation of it - let's be honest, GNU Emacs is not void of enormously annoying warts. The value of Emacs is the nice foundational Lisp layer - something Lem does provide. One side of me wants to remain skeptical - knowing how much stuff there exists in Org-mode and Magit - piles and piles of different workflows thousands of u", "context": "", "use_case": "Emacs alternative", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs Is a Lispboard"}, {"id": 784488320, "item_id": 49030520, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49030520", "by": "cmrdporcupine", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There's very little I miss when I use lem, TBH.", "excerpt": "Lem already has a clone of legit. And there's org-mode-alikes, as well. There's very little I miss when I use lem, TBH.", "context": "", "use_case": "Lisp-based editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs Is a Lispboard"}, {"id": 784386992, "item_id": 49024187, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49024187", "by": "xvilka", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Something like Lem[1][2] could go even further because of the richer CommonLisp ecosystem compared to Elisp one.", "excerpt": "Something like Lem[1][2] could go even further because of the richer CommonLisp ecosystem compared to Elisp one. [1] https://lem-project.github.io/ [2] https://github.com/lem-project/lem", "context": "", "use_case": "Lisp-based editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs Is a Lispboard"}, {"id": 777426944, "item_id": 48589184, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589184", "by": "dismalaf", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's an \"emacs\" but not a clone of GNU Emacs.  It's written in Common Lisp, extensible in Common Lisp and it's way more performant than GNU Emacs.", "excerpt": "I use Lem. It's an \"emacs\" but not a clone of GNU Emacs. It's written in Common Lisp, extensible in Common Lisp and it's way more performant than GNU Emacs. Obviously less features and plugins but for my needs (writing Lisp code mostly) it's great.", "context": "writes mostly Lisp code", "use_case": "writing Lisp code", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs 31 Is Around the Corner: The Changes I'm Daily Driving"}, {"id": 777385410, "item_id": 48586588, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48586588", "by": "cmrdporcupine", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "lately I use lem more than I do GNU emacs", "excerpt": "Vertico feels like a must-have to me these days. I also like to have treemacs installed. Apart from that, I don't have a lot I insist on, and my used emacs package space keeps shrinking. That said lately I use lem more than I do GNU emacs.", "context": "Emacs user", "use_case": "text editor", "switched_from": "GNU Emacs", "story": "Emacs 31 Is Around the Corner: The Changes I'm Daily Driving"}, {"id": 766679281, "item_id": 47917455, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47917455", "by": "eggy", "date": "2026-04-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Neovide and Lem interchangeably.", "excerpt": "I'm going to download and check out Mine and Coalton. Right now, I use Neovide and Lem interchangeably. However, I am in deep with Shen. I bought a hardcopy of The Book of Shen, 5th Edition, and I still have Peter Kogge's 1991 text, \"The Architecture of Symbolic Computers\". I suspect the Hindley-Milner type system in Coalton will be more familiar to the Haskellers out there, but it is not as strong as Shen's Sequent ", "context": "Lisp programmer, decades of experience", "use_case": "Common Lisp editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mine, an IDE for Coalton and Common Lisp"}, {"id": 766479762, "item_id": 47904985, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904985", "by": "armitron", "date": "2026-04-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "messy things like Lem that never really worked very well for me", "excerpt": "If you're a power user, the sooner you learn Emacs the better as the synergies with any Lisp language (particularly Common Lisp) are simply too strong to be ignored and there is no contemporary alternative that rivals it. For new users, this looks like a welcome alternative to messy things like Lem that never really worked very well for me.", "context": "", "use_case": "Common Lisp editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mine, an IDE for Coalton and Common Lisp"}, {"id": 733328560, "item_id": 45833035, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45833035", "by": "positron26", "date": "2025-11-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have a hope for the Common Lisp based Lem.", "excerpt": "Emacs took a wrong fork in its own metaphor. At length, being able to take code and libraries between production and the editor would be a game changer. While Elisp has design features that make sense, in the tradeoffs, I think it lost to every other lisp with a general purpose programming ecosystem. I have a hope for the Common Lisp based Lem. All we need is to coordinate enough signal for potential users to feel it", "context": "", "use_case": "Common Lisp editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "How I am deeply integrating Emacs"}]}