David Aue wrote: In hindsight I would like to make the > following suggestions for a LISP in a Box 2.0. > > 1) Full power and free tools > > 2) Most people run Microsoft Windows > > 3) Packages make programming fun > > 4) Learning a new and totally unfamiliar editor sucks
Let me just say: yes, yes, yes, and again yes. I had a LOT of my Lisp enthusiasm sucked out of me simply because of all the hassles and limitations (both real and perceived) of wanting to set up a free Lisp environment to use in Windows. I'm currently using Linux at home, in anticipation of getting a new PC which will be my WinXP box, so my personal Lisp hurdles have somewhat disappeared. But I would be very interested in helping with a project to solve the problems listed above. Just as a source of inspiration, here are a couple of coding environments I've played with recently that gave instant gratification: Processing - http://processing.org/ A sort of mini-language and IDE, initially created for new media art programming. Forget that it's Java-based, if that bothers you, just load it up and try it; the IDE is brilliant simplicity, a perfect example of how to get someone actually programming without having to muck around with any details, and keep it fun. (The language abstractions make it awfully fun to create little visual thingamabobs, too.) It's also a good example of making the easy things simple, and letting things get complex only when they need to. There's no power taken away, it's just kept to the side until you look for it. DrScheme - http://www.drscheme.org/ I've barely touched this, and my Scheme is rustier than my CL (ie. very), but you know what made this immediately score points over SLIME for me? a) It runs in Windows. b) I could compile a native, standalone, console-based .exe of Hello World in about the first minute of using it. Is that even possible to do with any CL implementation that won't cost my employer over $500? I'd love to be coding up little command-line tools to make my life at work easier with CL, but right now I simply can't. - josh g. _______________________________________________ Gardeners mailing list [email protected] http://www.lispniks.com/mailman/listinfo/gardeners
