[AnimalMuppet]

Hmm. I've been thinking for a while now that Lisp (and also FP) matches how some peoples' minds work, and doesn't match how other peoples' minds work. For those who match Lisp and/or FP, it's like a revelation, and it's very freeing. For others, not so much - it's a new way of programming, and you can do it that way, but why would you want to?

You said:

> ... the single representation carries little structural information and the meaning of a symbol is highly dependent on its containing context.

That makes me wonder if the difference is abstract vs. concrete thinking - those who by nature prefer abstract thinking will find Lisp more natural, and those who prefer concrete thinking will find it clumsy and unsettling.

Choosing the "right" programming language is not just finding the right language for the task (though it is that). It's also finding the right language that fits our minds - and our minds are not identical.

[lispm]

I think it can be learned - but one needs to have an open mind. If one has learned how a specific program look like in something like PASCAL and then later learns Lisp, there are a bunch of concepts which need to be adjusted...

I started with BASIC, various Assembler variants, PASCAL, UCSD PASCAL, MODULA 2, ... and then learned Lisp variants and Scheme - and also learned basics of some other languages like ObjectPascal, SAIL, Prolog, Postscript, Smalltalk, ...