Lisp and ML (as in Haskell) are dark magic from the early days of computing that are continually rediscovered. Currently they form an undercurrent, not just of

Lisp and ML (as in Haskell) are dark magic from the early days of computing that are continually rediscovered. Currently they form an undercurrent, not just of language features but programming philosophy, that is shaping the new and emerging languages of today. Many of us have observed how learning a language like Lisp and becoming familiar with the idioms of programming with it can have a profound impact on how we write in other languages. In this spirit, consider a lesser-mentioned language from the same era- Forth. Discard any preconceptions you may have about stack-oriented languages and take a few days to sit down and read "Thinking Forth"[1], which delves deeply into the architectural philosophy that goes along with the language. Forth is at once mind-numbingly close to hardware and surprisingly well-suited to readable, high-level expression. [1]http://sourceforge.net/projects/thinking-forth/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/thinking-forth/