XPost: comp.lang.lisp   
   From: oyvin@remove.spam.oyvins.net   
      
   "wim"  writes:   
      
   > "Laurence Kramer"  wrote in message   
   > news:40915ea3$1@news.unimelb.edu.au...   
   > > We have one or two job openings for people interested   
   > > in doing software development and maintenance in a research   
   > > setting.  We strongly prefer candidates with experience in Common   
   > > Lisp, but will consider people with a good CS background   
   > > and little Lisp experience but with a desire to learn.   
   >   
   > Out of curiousity, why is LISP so highly regarded in the AI field still?   
   > Pardon my ignorance, but I thought something more akin to Prolog might   
   > be better.   
      
   It depends on which field you are working in. If you are creating a   
   system based on genetic algoritms the answer should be fairly obvious:   
   Lisp will program it self with ease since functions are first class   
   objects. New functions can be programmed at runtime by the system it self   
   for example. It is also symbol-handling, wich for many reasons is useful   
   in AI.   
      
   Other areas suits both languages: parsing and generation of natural languages   
   comes to mind. Prolog is nice for areas like automated reasoning and rule-   
   based systems, but Lisp will do that as well (you can even run Prolog   
   interpreters in Lisp if you really have to).   
      
   --   
   Oyvin   
      
   [ comp.ai is moderated.  To submit, just post and be patient, or if ]   
   [ that fails mail your article to , and ]   
   [ ask your news administrator to fix the problems with your system. ]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)