Question

I don’t know enough Lisp to say whether it’s good or bad. It seems like everyone who has used Lisp loves it, yet the most popular languages these days are descended from C.

So what is it about Lisp that is so great and why isn’t it used more? Is there anything just plain bad about Lisp (other than the incessant amount of parentheses)?

Answer 1

Lisp is the Chuck Norris of programming languages.

Lisp is the bar other languages are measured against.

Knowing Lisp demonstrates developer enlightenment.

I’ve heard of 3 weaknesses (and their counter-arguments):

1. Dynamic typing.

   There’s an argument for statically typed languages out there revolving around giving the compiler enough information to catch a certain class of errors so they don’t happen at runtime. But you still need to test.

   This article argues for dynamic typing along with more testing: Strong Typing vs. Strong Testing.

2. Hard to pick up.

   There are actually two parts to this: learning and tools.

   Lisp takes some effort to really “get”, but it’s worth it, because learning Lisp really will make you a better programmer in other languages. For instance, once you really “get” closures, you’ll understand Java’s inner classes. And once you “get” first-class functions, you’ll be depressed every time you use a language without them.

   I’ve read The Little Schemer and am reading Practical Common Lisp, which are both excellent.

   Next are the tools. I’m on a Mac, so I’ve zeroed in on Aquamacs Emacs (makes Emacs livable for a novice) and Steel Bank Common Lisp (SBCL).

3. Lack of libraries.

   I can’t tell for sure yet, but I doubt it. For building web sites it looks like Hunchentoot and Elephant provide a good set of tools. But really I don’t see Lispers complaining about the lack of libraries (maybe because Lisp is so powerful they just aren’t needed?).