By and large, I agree with the author's observations. > I think some of the best programs were essays, in the sense that the authors didn't know when they star

By and large, I agree with the author's observations. > I think some of the best programs were essays, in the sense that the authors didn't know when they started exactly what they were trying to write. That's the premise that Lisp was built upon. As far as I know it's the only programming system that comes with the intention to let you write “essays”. All the other languages I know are targeted more narrowly.