From: Jeff Dalton
Subject: Re: Is lisp easy to learn?
Date: Tue, 03 Nov 1992 18:32:53 +0000
Message-ID: <7845@skye.ed.ac.uk>

In article <······················@eng.umd.edu> ····@eng.umd.edu (Charles Lin) writes:
>
>    My question is then: If Lisp is so easy, why is it easy?  What
>prevents someone from using, say, ML?

What prevents me from using ML is

 * I can never remember the syntax.

 * I'd have to figure out all over again how to set up a good
   Emacs env, etc.

 * I like having defined I/O forms for most datatypes.

 * I define lots of macros.

 * I don't have to know how to access the library to use, say,
   remove-if.

 * I like to use CLOS or else define a simple object system
   (for which I need macros).

 * I use describe and inspect.

-- jd