On my quest to extend CLISP compiler for .NET, I came across couple of good links. One of them is Brian Ritchie's .NET languages. This page is a an excellent resource on .NET language compilers and supporting languages.
Also, in support of precious LISP, I found Jeff saying in Robert Mclaws blog
“IMHO, besides powerful string processing facilities, LISP's main advantage are:
- Fast development cycles (as it's an interpreted language like JAVA and C#/.NET, so no lengthy linking-compiling stuff. Further, each function or method can be modified/loaded/tested separately at runtime. By experience, much faster to write than JAVA and of course C++)
- Incredible flexibility (any algorithm, structure, concept can be programmed in a very natural way. What other language easily allows you to create functions that create functions? BTW, unlike JAVA, LISP also supports multiple inheritance)
- Short learning curve for programmers as one can program LISP in any style (functional, OO) and make the code look like your favourite language (might it be C, JAVA, Pascal, Fortran, VB...). This might also be a disadvantage, especially in big projects (> 1 man!) because it doesn't force one to use a particuliar structure. If this annoys you, you can still use the very LISP-like Smalltalk, which is 100% OO and ortogonal and thus enforces a bit more disciplin.
