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I have been developing in c# and ASP.NET for around 8 years and developing professionally for about 15 years. I have been looking into lisp/scheme and just won

by geekiac 19y ago

I have been developing in c# and ASP.NET for around 8 years and developing professionally for about 15 years. I have been looking into lisp/scheme and just wondered what other people thought. I have dabbled with python, ruby and smalltalk recently aswell, however people do seem to like this thing called lisp. I have been trying to work out what the fuss was all about. I want to be able to develop quickly and do find the Visual Studio environment and the .NET framework very helpful when you are looking for functions. However i get frustrated with how verbose the language is and I do miss the ability to modify the program at runtime which I was able to do back in my FoxPro days!!

giardini 19y ago
8 years of C# and .NET? IIRC it was introduced in 2001. How many years of Java do you have? 20 or 25?
- geekiac 19y ago
  Ok my bad. When you get to my age your memory ain't so good!!! Any advice on lisp/scheme?
gruseom 19y ago
I think it depends on temperament as well as on what kind of system you're trying to build. I could tell you why I love working in Lisp compared to C# - it makes building abstractions so natural and malleable that I feel like a fish swimming in water instead of glue - but it doesn't follow that your experience will be the same. All you can do is give it enough of a try to decide for youself. I know lots of C# programmers who would much sooner give up abstractive power than the list of functions that pops up when they hit the "." key. Many are quite happy writing duplicate code as long as the IDE types half of it for them. They don't even notice the duplication. This is not the temperament that is likely to enjoy working in Lisp. If, on the other hand, you feel that you increasingly have to fight with C#/ASP.NET/VS as your program grows more complex, or if you have a persistent nagging sense that it shouldn't have to be this hard, you might like Lisp. Here's a suggestion. Whatever your project is, learn enough Lisp to program a basic first version of it. Resist the temptation to reject what's unfamiliar until it subsides (otherwise there's no point in the experiment). Then ask yourself which feels better.

by geekiac 19y ago

giardini 19y ago

8 years of C# and .NET? IIRC it was introduced in 2001. How many years of Java do you have? 20 or 25?

geekiac 19y ago
Ok my bad. When you get to my age your memory ain't so good!!! Any advice on lisp/scheme?

gruseom 19y ago

I think it depends on temperament as well as on what kind of system you're trying to build. I could tell you why I love working in Lisp compared to C# - it makes building abstractions so natural and malleable that I feel like a fish swimming in water instead of glue - but it doesn't follow that your experience will be the same. All you can do is give it enough of a try to decide for youself. I know lots of C# programmers who would much sooner give up abstractive power than the list of functions that pops up when they hit the "." key. Many are quite happy writing duplicate code as long as the IDE types half of it for them. They don't even notice the duplication. This is not the temperament that is likely to enjoy working in Lisp. If, on the other hand, you feel that you increasingly have to fight with C#/ASP.NET/VS as your program grows more complex, or if you have a persistent nagging sense that it shouldn't have to be this hard, you might like Lisp. Here's a suggestion. Whatever your project is, learn enough Lisp to program a basic first version of it. Resist the temptation to reject what's unfamiliar until it subsides (otherwise there's no point in the experiment). Then ask yourself which feels better.