When did you first try Lisp seriously, and which Lisp family member was it?

I first tried Lisp Seriously in 1992/3 (even though I've set my switch date to 2003). I embedded Elk Scheme into the CAID, animation, and 3D modelling software of Alias Research Inc. We did quite a bit of work with scheme at Alias, despite some early resistance to it by some developers.

I've spent the time between then and 2003 looking for excuses to use lisp. I had a brief fling with ACL in 1994, I think, but dropped that when Franz changed their licensing prices. In 2003, I downloaded the LispWorks for Mac trial version, got hooked, found a small project, and bought a professional license. I've used it for a number of projects since, and currently am working on a commercial product using it.

My first actual use of lisp was in 1977 using punch cards on a mainframe. It was not a convincing experience :-)

What led you to try Lisp?

I needed a language to embed into the Alias products. Elk scheme was one possibility. The other was Python -- a very early version. Elk was much more mature at the time and was much more easily embedded (don't forget the year, 1992).

Elk was a very successful technology at Alias. This followed on with Erlang experiments, also at Alias. Then using Clean for prototyping. Then ACL for a bit...

What other languages have you been using most?

Java, Smalltalk, Ruby, Eiffel, javascript, and a few others.

How far have you gotten in your study of Lisp?

Far enough that I can write new code in it as quickly as Java with IntelliJ IDEA. I still find the Java/IDEA combination much easier and faster for code modifications.

What do you think of Lisp so far?

I'm building a commercial application using it. The other programmers in my company are interested in learning CL or actively doing so. On the whole, I'm pretty happy.