Some Scheme/Lisp implementations are capable enough to accomplish daily work. Common Lisp is one option, and I've used Chicken Scheme effectively for some proje

Some Scheme/Lisp implementations are capable enough to accomplish daily work. Common Lisp is one option, and I've used Chicken Scheme effectively for some projects. You're right though, there's a significant learning curve with any language in a different paradigm. Forth-like languages are an example, and yeah, J/K and cousins are hard to grasp. I've dabbled in these but never quite got there. IMO Lisp-like languages aren't quite as "foreign" since the syntax is a variation on 'function parameters body' used in "normal" (Algol-like) languages. I guess it comes down to what we get used to, and really for many purposes choice of language isn't all that critical, assuming of course it supports the task at hand.