How I got into Lisp family of languages, specifically Common Lisp.

[ Check out all posts in “lisp” series here. ]

I think it was the second year in university when I first read about Lisp. I wrote some JS, and C quite a few years earlier.

I was trying to explore the scripting capabilities of AutoCAD. I borrowed 2 books from the university library: one about AutoLISP, the other, Common Lisp. I was originally after some pragmatic learning to help with my design projects in architecture school, but Lisp was just too fun to stop reading. It revived my interest in programming. S-expressions, CLOS, MOP, macros, I kept reading.

I became a regular in the relevant IRC channels. I prototyped many unfinished projects in Lisp as a hobbyist. I mainly used Common Lisp. I wrote some Emacs Lisp, and a bit of Scheme, too.

I only used Lisp for hobby projects so far. I got to write less and less of it in the last decade. But they say learning Lisp makes you a better programmer even if you don’t use it professionally. I believe that.1

I will spare you the long-form Common Lisp evangelism. The language has its flaws, but it is really good!

More about that tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

  1. Same can be said for a few other languages, as well. ↩