At my current job, I switch between coding in Perl, Cadence_SKILL, and ZSH.

SKILL is a Lisp variant with the hacked-in option of specifying code in C-like syntax. So instead of
    (car my_list)

[download]
we can also call it like
    car(my_list)

[download]
In my opinion, probably the hardest thing about getting into a Lisp-like language is to change the way you think about solving problems. Akin to getting into Haskell, once you're tuned to a particular language, you will become very effective programming it.

Initially going from C to Lisp is not as trivial as C to Perl (or a shell language). For instance, to be effective in Lisp, you have to get out of the "array-index" mode of thinking. Instead, you would be thinking about "list decorations" and working with powerful "list mapping" functionality. In Lisp, you would enjoy well-defined function returns that make programming higher-order macros and recursive algorithms a breeze. At the very least, it would expand the way you think about problems. Then, you can come back and apply what you've learned to Perl.

My 2cents: Going from Bash/Perl to Lisp is a good idea.


By the way, I have always kept with Vim. However, it would be well worth your time to dabble with Emacs as an experiment vehicle to learning Lisp.

In reply to Re: (OT) Has anyone gone from perl to lisp? by repellent
in thread (OT) Has anyone gone from perl to lisp? by leocharre

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