I, Andrew Main?, do solemnly offer these my responses to The Road to Lisp Survey:
When did you first try Lisp seriously, and which Lisp family member was it?
I first found Common Lisp around April/May '07. As a C#/PHP programmer, I didn't quite understand what I was looking at. :)
What led you to try Lisp?
I did some web development work at school when I was 15. I got really hooked by the idea of interactive web pages, and was interested in Javascript. That didn't last long - I wanted to do things that were only possible server-side, and I really sucked at JS. So I got into PHP, my first real programming language, as a means to enhance my web pages.
So a year later I was using PHP, and I had read a few PHP books. But I wanted to be able to make actual applications that ran outside a browser. The only course at school which taught any real programming used C#, so I learned C# and I sort of liked it. I liked SharpDevelop, the massive, well-documented standard library, and the GUI designer. But coding C# was not easy, and some things (like having Main a static method of an object instead of a plain function) seemed arbitrary.
Out of curiosity and a vague sense that this wasn't the right way to do things, I started looking into other languages. Python looked good, put Paul Graham's Blub paradox was a convincing argument for trying lisp, so I downloaded CLisp and when looking for tutorials.
My jaw dropped, then it dropped again. The lack of syntax? The REPL? Functions as data? Code as data? Closures? Macros?
When I saw a guy define his own object system and syntax in the length of a blog post, I realised this was really a different type of language. Defining objects in C# or writing a webserver in PHP in unthinkable.
I now find it difficult to code in C# - in particular, the lack of first-class functions and macros is frustrating. After reading McCarthy's paper and the hyperspec, everything else is ill-defined.
What other languages have you been using most?
C# and PHP. I've also read up on and installed Python and OCaml, but I've never used them for anything except examples.How far have you gotten in your study of Lisp?
I've read Practical Common Lisp and ANSI Common Lisp, and I'm working through On Lisp slowly. I'm using Common Lisp for scripting and small programming tasks. I haven't used it for anything big yet, but I plan too. I haven't really looked at CLOS much.What do you think of Lisp so far?
It's amazing. I now know what Glenn Ehrlich meant when he talked of lightning between you fingertips. Lisp feels powerful. If I look hard enough at Lisp, there will be a simple and elegant way to solve any problem. What really blew my mind is how much of lisp can be defined in lisp - adding new features to the language (OO programming, signal handling, or aspect-orientated programming) is not possible in other languages, but in lisp it's easy, elegant, and considered a good idea.Switch Date 2007?
Seek and Ye Shall Find | RtL Paul Graham | RtL Language Curiosity
