[dasil003]

You're right, I was downplaying Lisp's successes. In fact I wouldn't disagree with most of what you say here, Lisp is definitely more powerful than Haskell.

The part where I disagree is that Lisp holds future promise as a general-purpose language replacement to tame the mess of COBOL / C++ / Java / PHP. I see in Haskell a way to raise the bar for the masses, whether it's Haskell per se or some trickle down effect. Yes, you could build a powerful type system in Lisp, but it is not a widespread goal because it is somewhat conflicting with the raw power argument.

> I would never put maintainability above power

Here is another place I disagree. All else being equal of course I prefer power, but these things are on a continuum. If I can sacrifice a bit of power to greatly increase maintainability or robustness then I believe that is a compromise worth looking at.

I'm curious if you really see no truth in my comment or you really do see programming world in purely blub-theory terms.