I, Daniel Pezely, 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?

Tried ANSI Common Lisp while seeking a new principal language in 2005. Started with deep AutoLisp in 1986, Scheme for a first year course in 1988, Emacs Lisp in 1989 and Common Lisp (mainly xlisp) in 1990. Touched a Symbolics system a couple of times in 1989.

Having not really used macros until this time around, I consider myself part of the new wave of lisp programmers. (Switch Date 2005)

What led you to try Lisp?

Lisp2: I ran into a wall using Python 2.4 with method decorators and meta-programming for some tweaky behavioral/AI code in the pursuit of emergent fiction. Found Peter Seibel's book on the shelf at a bookshop when looking to replace my copy of CLtL2?.

Lisp1: With some training in mechanical and architectural drafting, I was an AutoCAD consultant as a means to pay for college. In 1988, my first company's product converted and manipulated 3D survey data for civil engineers using AutoCAD.

What other languages have you been using most?

Python 1999-2005; C++ 1989-91; C 1987-97

How far have you gotten in your study of Lisp?

In mid-2006, I still am conscious of the learning curve yet am able to avoid excessive consing. Not much CLOS yet other than using someone else's API. Some GUI work with wxCL. Still not fluent but going deep into my first big project after several little experiments.

What do you think of Lisp so far?

I found myself having taken a tour of other languages over twenty years only to use them as the basis of making an informed decision to select Lisp now. Immediately upon revisiting Lisp after a decade, I realized how my Python/Ruby/Perl data structures often started with nested lists while creating a proof-of-concept or as easy-to-read meta structure that gets translated during initialization. And of course, how did I ever live without macros? I'm home, finally!