So I’ve gone back to the stoneage, and am learning LISP (circa 1958). I’m doing this not only to get a grasp on programming, but to learn the logic of programming. I’m going by the book and am using Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP). It’s avaliable for free online, and is an awesome book. This sums up the book (it’s the first page):

This book is dedicated, in respect and admiration, to the spirit that lives in the computer.

I think that it’s extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course, the paying customers got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines. I don’t think we are. I think we’re
responsible for stretching them, setting them off in new directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of computer science never loses its sense of fun. Above all, I hope we don’t become missionaries. Don’t feel as if you’re Bible salesmen. The world has too many of those already. What you know about computing other people will learn. Don’t feel as if the key to successful computing is only in your hands. What’s in your hands, I think and hope, is intelligence: the ability to see the machine as more than when you were first led up to it, that you can make it more.

Alan J. Perlis (April 1, 1922-February 7, 1990)

Onto the environment. I’ve found three LISP environments.

Clisp (General LISP)

GCL (General LISP)

Guile (Scheme)

Since the book deals with scheme as opposed to general lisp, I’m probably going to use guile. I’ve just been introduced to the world of lisp, so my pick might change as time goes on.