Lisp in the real world

clojure lisp scheme common-lisp
titaniumdecoy picture titaniumdecoy · Oct 6, 2008 · Viewed 31.8k times · Source

I have experimented with Lisp (actually Scheme) and found it to be a very beautiful language that I am interested in learning more about. However, it appears that Lisp is never used in serious projects, and I haven't seen it listed as a desired skill on any job posting. I am interested in hearing from anyone who has used Lisp or seen it used in the "real world", or who knows whether it is considered a purely academic language.

Answer

Matthias Benkard picture Matthias Benkard · Oct 6, 2008

Franz, Inc. provides an inexhaustive list of success stories on their website. However:

Please don't assume Lisp is only useful for Animation and Graphics, AI, Bioinformatics, B2B and E-Commerce, Data Mining, EDA/Semiconductor applications, Expert Systems, Finance, Intelligent Agents, Knowledge Management, Mechanical CAD, Modeling and Simulation, Natural Language, Optimization, Research, Risk Analysis, Scheduling, Telecom, and Web Authoring just because these are the only things they happened to list. — Kent Pitman

We can find other success stories here: http://lisp-lang.org/success/

and a list of current companies using Common Lisp: https://github.com/azzamsa/awesome-lisp-companies

Related questions

Clojure vs other Lisps

The intent of my question is not to start a flame war, but rather to determine in what circumstances each language is "the best tool for the job." I have read several books on Clojure (Programming Clojure, Practical Clojure, The …

Read More
What are the differences between Clojure, Scheme/Racket and Common Lisp?

I know they are dialects of the same family of language called lisp, but what exactly are the differences? Could you give an overview, if possible, covering topics such as syntax, characteristics, features and resources.

Read More
Please explain some of Paul Graham's points on Lisp

I need some help understanding some of the points from Paul Graham’s What Made Lisp Different. A new concept of variables. In Lisp, all variables are effectively pointers. Values are what have types, not variables, and assigning or binding …

Read More