Idiomatic Lisp and the Nbody Benchmark

a day ago

The article discusses the concept of idiomatic Lisp programming and its performance, using the nbody benchmark as a case study.
It challenges the claim that Lisp is slower than C by demonstrating how idiomatic Lisp can achieve performance parity with C through metaprogramming and DSL creation.
The author defines idiomatic code as code that aligns with a language's characteristics and represents fluent programming practices.
A key point is that idiomatic Lisp involves using its multi-paradigm and metaprogramming features to adapt the language to the problem, rather than forcing the problem into a specific style.
The author creates a kernel DSL in Lisp to rewrite the nbody benchmark, resulting in code that is both more readable and matches C's performance.
Benchmark results show the Lisp kernel DSL implementation (median 1651 ms) performing similarly to the C version (median 1657 ms), while a conventional loopy Lisp version is slower (median 2005 ms).
The implementation relies on a 700-line Lisp library and the SBCL compiler, contrasting with the extensive codebase of GCC, to highlight Lisp's efficiency and flexibility.
The article concludes that idiomatic Lisp can be competitive with C in performance while offering unique benefits like reusability and expressiveness.

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