"Problem 1: Which Lisp? Sorry, folks, but you can't trivialize this one. Let's say I'm a new would-be Lisper, just finished walking down that long damn Road, and now that I'm here, I'm ready to start using it. Which "it" should I use? The answer is "it depends", and that's pretty unfortunate, because right there you've just lost users. With Python or Ruby or Java, you've only got one language to choose from. Or at least you can be comfortable that there's a single canonical version, and the rest (e.g. Jython) are highly experimental territory.
Pick Scheme, and you have to pick a Scheme. Pick Common Lisp, and you have to pick a Common Lisp. Heck, there are even two or three flavors of Emacs-Lisp out there.
Most newcomers eventually (and independently) decide the same thing: Scheme is a better language, but Common Lisp is the right choice for production work. CL has more libraries, and the implementations are somewhat more compatible than Scheme implementations, particularly with respect to macros. "
Since the full rant is tough on Lisp (and I like Lisp), and since you'd quoted most of the above, I was quick to pull the trigger on which to quote. Thanks for pointing it out.
"Problem 1: Which Lisp? Sorry, folks, but you can't trivialize this one. Let's say I'm a new would-be Lisper, just finished walking down that long damn Road, and now that I'm here, I'm ready to start using it. Which "it" should I use? The answer is "it depends", and that's pretty unfortunate, because right there you've just lost users. With Python or Ruby or Java, you've only got one language to choose from. Or at least you can be comfortable that there's a single canonical version, and the rest (e.g. Jython) are highly experimental territory.
Pick Scheme, and you have to pick a Scheme. Pick Common Lisp, and you have to pick a Common Lisp. Heck, there are even two or three flavors of Emacs-Lisp out there.
Most newcomers eventually (and independently) decide the same thing: Scheme is a better language, but Common Lisp is the right choice for production work. CL has more libraries, and the implementations are somewhat more compatible than Scheme implementations, particularly with respect to macros. "
Since the full rant is tough on Lisp (and I like Lisp), and since you'd quoted most of the above, I was quick to pull the trigger on which to quote. Thanks for pointing it out.