I, Scott Michel, 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? Franz Lisp, way back in the day before it commercialized, under Wollongong Eunice on a Vax 11/750. This in or around 1985/86 or so, and I was a student at Wittenberg University (Springfield, OH). I was an undergraduate teaching assistant who had to get up-to-speed on the language, so I tried a few programming homework assignments in it.

What led you to try Lisp? I had the point of a good grade aimed at my head.

What other languages have you been using most? At the time, Pascal was all the rage. Today, it's mostly C++, Python, Java (unless it can be avoided.)

How far have you gotten in your study of Lisp? I'm coming back to it after a long time away, but the basic idioms are still in my head. Not entirely comfortable with CLOS just yet, but it's not that intimidating.

What do you think of Lisp so far? Some of the syntax could be improved in macro templates, but otherwise, it's still the comfortable old shoe I knew and loved.

Switch Date 2006