7 ms·

The lisp vs foo is somewhat special. An accessible, easy-to-learn lisp platform with a full complement of libraries is pretty much a bit of a Holy Grail. edit:

• jrockway 18y ago
  An accessible, easy-to-learn lisp platform with a full complement of libraries PLT Scheme? Clojure? Even CL has some of the best libraries I've used, although coverage can be spotty at times. This still hasn't killed all the other programming languages, which leads me to believe that libraries aren't actually what matters. I think, instead, that most people pick programming languages based on what's crammed down their throats. For a UNIX app, you "have to" use C. For everything else, you "have to" use Java, since that's what you learned at school (now it's .NET too). Popularity is overrated anyway. Haskell and SBCL are not exactly popular, but they have great runtimes, important modern features, and plenty of libraries and tools. The only reason not to use them is because you'd rather use Java instead.
• zitterbewegung 18y ago
  Why does a language make such an dichotomy. Why not instead learn tools and apply it in the languages that you know. Use what you know not the dogma of the other languages.