So, today, I set out on a brand new adventure. About 3 years ago I learned of this interesting language called Lisp. Before everyone breaks in to jokes about talking with a lisp (beside the jab I took in the subject line), let me explain what Lisp is. It’s a programming language, specifically , it’s a Functional Programming Language. Functional programming, as I understand it, treats everything as a mathematical function (as opposed to objects or maybe object states, as two other popular paradigms do). Lisp is well known for its liberal use of parenthesis and the fact that everything is done in prefix notation. Here is an example of how one would add two numbers:
(+ 69 31)
Anyway, I had to use this language in college when I was taking my Artificial Intelligence class. Very cool stuff, but I had to learn it well enough to complete the assignment and did not see the need to buy a whole book to learn a language I could not see myself using after the class was over. I enjoyed the language and it’s unique approach, but as I said, I couldn’t use it afterwards (or so I thought). Recently though, I’ve come to find out that Lisp has some really advanced features that no other languages have.
So here I am, huddled over a copy of ANSI Common Lisp, trying to figure it out. I see many sleepless nights ahead of me. At least I’m interested in programming again.
-Tom