[[rescue] flamewar question: Perl]

[joshua d boyd]

On Sun, Jul 22, 2001 at 07:49:07PM -0500, Bill Bradford wrote:
> And I cant think of a single reason to *ever* learn the following languages:

Taking the list out of order

> Ada

Because you want to work for the government?  Actually, I thought Ada
looked decent (tutored someone in using Ada once, but don't really remeber
it).  However, the only reason I could think of to use it rather than more
popular offerings were if you didn't like python (either because you want
something compiled, or you like strong typing).
 
> Scheme
> Lisp

OK, from what I've seen, learning Scheme is the best way to make sure that
you really know lisp.

Now, I'm in the middle of trying to learn scheme.  My reasoning is that
some of the smartest people have quickly dashed out some incredibly
powerfull things in lisp in no time flat, and still love lisp to this
day.  Further, some major products are done in lisp.  Until Bush came to
power, the white house document server was driven by lisp (using
CL-HTTP).  Winged Edge Mirai (formerly Niechimen N-Graphics, formerly
Symbolics S-Graphics) is written in lisp.  Part of Yahoo is written in
lisp.  The franz and the ALU web sites are filled with testimonials from
particularly impressive people about lisp.

Also, I now know enough about scheme to be able to say that mathematical
computing feels extremely at home in lisp.  And a lot of my research is
mathematical in some way (curves, linear transforms, vectors, etc).

Well, those are just some thoughts from a CS major who is trying to figure
out how to be more effective, and how to be the best he can be.  Believe
me, I have spent much time researching things, trying to figure out what
language will help me be the best, and I think that scheme just might be
the language.  So, I will continue trying to learn it.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd