From: Yonder Light
Subject: suitability of lisp to applications
Date: 
Message-ID: <fc2eaecd.0211150233.2d4e34ed@posting.google.com>
I am beginning to learn Common LISP. I am worried that I am learning a
language that I cant make versatile applications with.
I chose to learn lisp because of its mathematical and AI uses. 
I want to be able to create programs that can do anything from games
to AI to internet and desktop applications.
Have I chosen a suitable language? Is there a more suitable? Where can
I find out how to combine LISP with other languages to get the
capabilities I want?

From: Matthew Danish
Subject: Re: suitability of lisp to applications
Date: 
Message-ID: <20021115063539.D19796@lain.cheme.cmu.edu>
On Fri, Nov 15, 2002 at 02:33:30AM -0800, Yonder Light wrote:
> I am beginning to learn Common LISP. I am worried that I am learning a
> language that I cant make versatile applications with.
> I chose to learn lisp because of its mathematical and AI uses. 
> I want to be able to create programs that can do anything from games
> to AI to internet and desktop applications.
> Have I chosen a suitable language? Is there a more suitable? Where can
> I find out how to combine LISP with other languages to get the
> capabilities I want?

Common Lisp is a versatile and powerful language [1], and you can
accomplish all these goals in it if you want to.  Why do you think it is
so popular for AI applications, anyway?  AI is a *hard* problem, so if
Common Lisp is good enough for that, it should be good enough for
anything.

You'll find that people use Common Lisp for a whole variety of tasks.
My recommendation is to go and learn more about Common Lisp and about
what tools are available.  Some URLs to start you off:

http://ww.telent.net/cliki/index
http://www.lisp.org/
http://www.lispworks.com/
http://www.franz.com/

Most implementations come with libraries, and some sort of
foreign-function interface so you can combine Lisp with other languages
if you wish.


[1] This is comp.lang.lisp.  What do you expect me to say?

-- 
; Matthew Danish <·······@andrew.cmu.edu>
; OpenPGP public key: C24B6010 on keyring.debian.org
; Signed or encrypted mail welcome.
; "There is no dark side of the moon really; matter of fact, it's all dark."
From: Mark Dalgarno
Subject: Re: suitability of lisp to applications
Date: 
Message-ID: <u3cq3kr5y.fsf@scientia.com>
············@hotmail.com (Yonder Light) writes:

> I am beginning to learn Common LISP. I am worried that I am learning
> a language that I cant make versatile applications with.

See http://www.elwood.com/alu/table/applications.htm for examples of
Lisp applications.

> I chose to learn lisp because of its mathematical and AI uses. 
> I want to be able to create programs that can do anything from games
> to AI to internet and desktop applications.

There are Lisp applications in all of these areas.

> Have I chosen a suitable language? Is there a more suitable? 

>Where can I find out how to combine LISP with other languages to get
>the capabilities I want?

Tell us more about the capabilities you want - they may *all* be
possible using only Lisp - and what Lisp platform(s) you're using or
thinking of using.

Mark
From: Kenny Tilton
Subject: Re: suitability of lisp to applications
Date: 
Message-ID: <3DD50F9B.8000908@nyc.rr.com>
Yonder Light wrote:
> I am beginning to learn Common LISP. I am worried that I am learning a
> language that I cant make versatile applications with.

au contraire, if we take the above literally. CL applications are an 
order more versatile than any other language's apps, because CL is 
dynamic and carries the compiler around with it.

But if you mean you are concerned you will be locked out of nifty 
libraries available elsewhere, that's a different story. Some work might 
be needed to whip up bindings to those libraries (if no one else has not 
already done so and shared it), but I look at it this way: yeah, I might 
kill two weeks getting Lisp to talk to some C library, but after that I 
am running at warp factor three.

with anything else I spend the entire project at sub-light, just to save 
two weeks.

-- 

  kenny tilton
  clinisys, inc
  ---------------------------------------------------------------
""Well, I've wrestled with reality for thirty-five years, Doctor,
   and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it.""
                                                   Elwood P. Dowd