The Design and Implementation of a Modern Lisp Dialect

Lisp, invented in 1958 by John McCarthy, revolutionized how programs could be written and expressed. Instead of giving explicit instructions to a computer, Lisp expressed programs as logical operations and functions. Lisp was the first language to incorporate modern language features including: garbage collection, conditionals, first class functions, and recursion. Also, in 1994 Common Lisp became the first language to use object oriented programming. However the emergence of the popular C model of programming has shifted the perception of what level of detail (high or low) a programming language ought to focus on. Today programming languages are meant to interact with the operating system at an intimate level and communicate with other language environments. Common Lisp, which focuses on higher level details, has become, accordingly, outdated and considered ineffective. However, the Lisp model of 1 programming still arguably remains the most effective for creative applications. Lisp has a greater ability to abstract and works at a higher level than C code. Therefore a fundamental difference arises in the style of program development between the two languages. This paper will attempt to explain the benefits of programming from the Lisp side.