Why aren't we all speaking LISP now?

[Jonathan Feinberg]

"Andrew Dalke" <dalke at acm.org> writes:

>   Graphics - assignments could be done in Pascal, C or C++
>        Only language used in lectures was the Pascal-like
>        one needed to read Foley&van Dam.

The once CS class I took in college (I discovered the department too
late to major) was taught by Andy van Dam, of "& van Dam". :)

I loved the course, worked harder on it than I ever had worked on
anything in my whole college career, and wound up TAing in the
department for my last semester.  It broke my heart that I had wound
up majoring in English by default.

It was taught in Pascal, which actually served its purpose very well
by me.  They really drilled modular programming styles and good
data-hiding, which later served me well for absorbing OO principles.

The Little Lisper (now Schemer) was a wonderful read, blew my mind.
I've begun SICP a couple of times, but have never finished it.

-- 
Jonathan Feinberg   jdf at pobox.com   Sunny Brooklyn, NY
http://pobox.com/~jdf