xml-dev - Re: XML-Conformant Programming Languages

[Lars Marius Garshol <larsga@ifi.uio.no>]

* Steve Oldmeadow
| 
| Can you elaborate on why Lisp made you a better programmer? 

Sure. Bear in mind when reading the below that I'm talking about both
learning Scheme, learning and using Common Lisp and reading SICP. Also
bear in mind that I'm no expert on CL, just at the end of the novice
stage.

I learned a lot about program design and now see it in a different way
from before. This comes partly from being exposed to the 'design a
language to write your program in'-philosophy, partly from seeing how
Scheme (and Common Lisp through MOP) lets you build your own object
systems and from getting used to a truly different object system.

Another thing I learned a lot about was the differences and strengths
of different families of programming languages (functional,
imperative, OOP, etc). This was mainly from SICP.

There's probably some improvement in the way I write individual lines
of code as well, from being exposed to a language that is enormously
much more expressive, but I'm not really sure.

I also see data structures and working with them in a different light.

A final, and major benefit, is the realization that there is much more
to the world than just Java and C++, and that this world beyond those
two has a lot to offer.

--Lars M.


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