Well, I don't know. Popularity definitely gets you libraries, but to a large extent, the runtimes are VERY daunting even to interested people. The author raises

Well, I don't know. Popularity definitely gets you libraries, but to a large extent, the runtimes are VERY daunting even to interested people. The author raises some valid issues with CL implementations. I'd also add concurrency/threading, for example. Part of the problem is that the standard (in my opinion) standardises some of the "wrong" things. In part, that's just down to its age, but also just the whole "design by committee" problem. So if there are important omissions in the standard, you get a load of implementations that technically comply, but in effect are incompatible with one another for any real work. Most of the popular newer languages have a "benevolent dictator" (or not so benevolent in some cases), which means there's a reference implementation which almost everyone uses. Okay, maybe you lose out a bit on runtime quality, but I think the current trend towards building on top of the JVM, etc. will continue and alleviate that particular problem. I also tried to use Common Lisp, I really did. I liked the core, but in the end it was the sheer volume of little problems that drove me away. Luckily, I've found a lovely compromise in Clojure.