When did you first try Lisp seriously, and which Lisp family member was it?
I worked my way through SICP (using scheme) when I was in high school (1993 or so). Then I started programming in Common Lisp (using MCL) in 1999 when I was working at Nokia Research Center. In between, I programmed in C and Tcl a lot.
What led you to try Lisp?
The first time: I'd heard that SICP was a ``serious'' programming text. Since it seemed quite far beyond what I'd seen in 10th grade, I was willing to just go along with it. (Eventually I figured out that logic programming wasn't going to take over the world, but it's just as well that they removed that footnote from the new edition.)
At NRC, my supervisor suggested that I use Lisp for some semantic web related work. The MCL environment was much less constricting than other languages I'd been using, so I jumped in.
What other languages have you been using most?
C and, more recently, Matlab.
How far have you gotten in your study of Lisp?
I'd call myself an ``expert'' programmer. The nice thing about Lisp is that it's pretty easy to reach the point where you can express any algorithmic ideas you have in it.
What do you think of Lisp so far? It's my favorite programming language, but the interactive environment is what really makes Lisp great for research work; running it in batch mode or with a primitive IDE just isn't the same.
Please delete all but one of these cross-referencing tags: Switch Date 1990s
RtL SICP RtL AI | RtL Work