''I think I've just transcended to become a'' '''smug''' ''non Lisp weenie:''

The claims for the superiority of Lisp are pretty much a(n inside) joke, as you can make Lisp do anything (i.e., behave like any other language).  

Therefore, of course it's superior.  It takes a little bit (!!) of digging to get the joke.  

Furthermore, I think a lot of Lisp weenies don't get the joke!

fearfully,
Anonymous

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''Anonymous again: I suppose my first post above'' '''is''' ''overly cynical.  I do recognize some good things in Lisp based on the reading I've done (continuations, closures, and the like), and wish that SICP had been available when I was in school.  (Graduated in 1972, I'll have to check the copyright on SICP (StructureAndInterpretationOfComputerPrograms)--although I did take a Lisp course, the text, iirc, was the "Lisp 1.5 Programmer's Manual") (I thought there was another text for the course as well, but can't recall / put my fingers on it.)  Guess I'll end up doing some serious reading in SICP.''


SICP isn't really a lisp (nor scheme) book.  It is one of the best computer science texts written though, so well worth the time.  As for the rest of this page --- well I don't see really how you have addressed the superiority of lisp but that is ok :)

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I feel myself to be a SmugNonLispWeenie too. I spent a lot of time learning lisp (and a fair amount of money on books), and I found the process very exciting. But now that I come full circle, I find myself not needing to use it in everyday work. I'd use Lisp/Scheme for hardcore comp-sci-ish projects, like compilers/interpreters and maybe for exploration in math and algorithms, but when it comes time to build an application I'd much rather use something else.

This doesn't mean Lisp was a waste of time for me. It was an incredible experience and my code has improved dramatically because of it. Code that I used to find inscrutable now makes sense (the author had a lispy frame of mind too, I suppose). Languages that I once struggled with (Haskell and Prolog, for example) now make sense to me.

I'd say Lisp is more valuable to me as a self improvment tool than as an actual development environment, to me. 

-- DaveFayram

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