Sebastian Stern's Road to Lisp

I, Sebastian Stern, 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?
The first time I encountered Lisp, I immediately realized this was it. In 2000, I downloaded Lisp for the first time. It was Harlequin LispWorks. After that I downloaded some more implementations, such as Franz, and Corman. I also had SuSE Linux installed, which had a copy of CLISP.

What led you to try Lisp?
As synchronicity would have it, I read Douglas R. Hofstadters three wonderful articles about Lisp in Scientific American in the compendium book "Metamagical Themas", at fourteen years old. I became completely infatuated by Lisp. I realized that the languages I had learned until now, were ad-hoc and that Lisp is the natural way to construct a language.

Where did your road originate?
I had been programming from a very early age. I also was (and am) very interested in mathematics and the theory behind programming. Before I learned about Lisp, I had learned about Basic, HTML, C, C++, Java and others. I find it a pity that I am forced to use some these languages at my university instead of Lisp. I think it would make a big difference to introduce Lisp at universities to young programmers.

How far have you gotten in your study of Lisp?
I've studied CLtL2 and SICP, downloaded a few Lisp implementations and fiddled a little with them. I've also read various texts and articles on the internet. I read comp.lang.lisp. However, I have found it difficult to become proficient in Lisp. As much as I like Lisp, it is a complex tool, and it is difficult to master completely.

What do you think of Lisp so far? I adore it. To me, the concepts that Lisp stands for are an embodiment of all that is beautiful in the Universe. However, I am only about 80% happy with Lisp as it is currently defined (CL and Scheme). I think there should be a new definition of Lisp (perhaps like TUNES or Genera or Graham's Arc) which combines Common Lisp's features with Scheme's elegance. Inasmuch as I would be capable, I would love to create such a system.


P.S. I found these questions slightly confusing; for example, "What led you to Lisp?" and "Where did your road originate?" are allmost the same.


Switch Date 2000 | RtL Douglas Hofstadter

This page is linked from:

RtL Highlight Film

Other pages sharing this page's categories:

"anonymous user's road to lisp" Abhijit Rao Albert Krewinkel's Road to Lisp Alejandro Guillen Road to LISP Alexander Lehmann's Road to Lisp AlexPeake AlexTibbles Andrew Jones-Gonzales's Road to Lisp Andrew Main's Road to Lisp Andrew Philpot's Road to Lisp Artie Gold's Road to LISP Arto Bendiken's Road to Lisp August Sigov's Road to Lisp Ben Holm's Road to Lisp Bill Birch's Road to Lisp Bob Bane's Road to Lisp Bob Bechtel BobHutchison Brad Beveridge - Road to Lisp Bradford W Miller BradMight Brandon Corfman Brendan Van Horn Brian Mastenbrook - Road to Lisp Brian T. Rice Bruce Durling's Road to Lisp Bruce Woodward's Road to Lisp Bulent Murtezaoglu C E C Artime Charlie McMackin Chris Laux's Road to Lisp Chris Smith's Road to Lisp Chris Sonnack's Road to Lisp Chris Van Dusen Chris-Perkins Christian Lynbechs Road to Lisp Christian Nybø Coby Beck Conrad Barski Constantine Vetoshev Damien Sullivan's Road to Lisp Dan Muller Daniel Barlow's Road to Lisp Daniel Pezely's Road to Lisp DARose Dave Fayram's Road to Lisp Dave Pearson Dave Roberts David Douthitt David Golden's Road to Lisp David Mercer David Rush David Thompson's Road to Lisp Denes Cselovszky's Road to Lisp Dirk Gerrits's Road to Lisp DJ Clark's Road to Lisp Donald Fisk's Road to Lisp Donnie Cameron's Road to Lisp Doug Tolton's Road to LIsp Drew Crampsie Drew McDermott Duane Rettig's Road To Lisp Edi Weitz' Road to Lisp Eduardo Muñoz Emre Sevinc Erann Gat's Road to Lisp Eric Hanchrow Erik Enge's Road to Lisp Erik Winkels's Road to Lisp Espen Vestre's Road to Lisp Gabor Melis's Road to Lisp Gareth McCaughan's Road to Lisp Gary King's Road to Lisp Gary Klimowicz's Road to Lisp Geoff Wozniak's Road to Lisp GeoffCant GeoffKnauth George Rogers Road to Lisp Glenn Ehrlich Glenn Ehrlich Road to Lisp Gordon Weakliem Heow's Road to Lisp Hoan Ton-That's Road to Lisp Ira Kalet's Road to Lisp Ivan Toshkov's Road To Lisp Jacek Generowicz James Fleming's Road to Lisp Jeff Shrager's Road to Lisp Jimmy Miller's Road to Lisp Jochen Schmidt's Road to Lisp Jock Cooper Joel Ray Holveck John Pallister's road to Lisp John Sturdy John Williams JP Massar Jurgen Defurne's Road to Lisp Justin Dubs Justin Heyes-Jones's Road To Lisp Kamen Tomov Karl K.'s Road to Lisp Kean Lau's Road to Lisp Kenny Tilton's Road to Lisp KevinZzz Larry Clapp's Road to Lisp Lars Brinkhoff's Road to Lisp Lars Wirzenius Lasse Rasinen Lennart Staflin Louis Theran Mackram Raydan's Road to Lisp Marc Mertens's Road to Lisp Marco Baringer's Road to Lisp Mark Hurd Mark Triggs Mark Wilson MarkBrady Marko Kocic Martin Mikelsons Matthias Benkard's Road to Lisp MattKnox Michael J Forster Michael Naunton's Road to Lisp Mikael Jansson's Road to Lisp Mike Travers Mikel Evins' Road to Lisp Mostafa Razavi's Road to Lisp Myron Wu's Road to LISP Nathan Bloomfield's Road to Lisp Naveen Garg Nick Levine Nicolas Sceaux's Road to Lisp Nikodemus Siivola'a Road to Lisp Nonya B's Road to Lisp Ola Rinta-Koski Ora Lassila's Road to Lisp Pascal Costanza's Road To Lisp Patrick Logan Paul Clevett Paul Foleys Road To Lisp Paul Graham's Road to Lisp Paul Potts Paul Snively PaulKhuong's Road To Lisp Peder O Klingenberg's Road to Lisp Pekka P Pirinen Pete Kirkham Peter Housel's Road to Lisp Peter Lewerin's Road to Lisp Peter Santoro Peter Seibel's Road to Lisp Peter Van Eynde's Road to Lisp Pierre Thierry's Road to Lisp Rainer Joswig's Road to Lisp Ralph Richard Cook Randall Randall's Road to Lisp Reini Urban Robbie Sedgewick's Road to Lisp Robert Marlow Robin Felix's Road to Lisp Robin Kåveland Hansen's Road to Lisp RtL Brian Cully RtL Russell Snow RtLMartinGinkel Sanjay Pande Scott L Burson's Road to Lisp Scott McIntire Scott Michel's Road to Lisp Sean Champ SimonHeath Sivaram N Slobodan Stephane Belmon's Road To Lisp Steven Harris' Road to Lisp Tage Stabell-Kulø Tayssir John Gabbour's Road to Lisp The Road Jeff Caldwell Took The Road to Lisp Questions Thomas F Burdick's Road to Lisp Thomas M. Hermann's Road to Lisp Thomas Müller Thomas Munro's Road to Lisp Thomas Stenhaug's Road to Lisp Tim Kerchmar TimHaynes Toby Davies' Road to Lisp Tomer Altman tony yelacic VikasGP Vladimir Sedach William Maddox Yuri Niyazov Zach Beane's Road to Lisp Zachery Bir