XPost: comp.lang.lisp   
   From: fredj@labyrinth.NOnet.SPAMau   
      
   "Laurence Kramer"  wrote in message   
   news:409a8790$1@news.unimelb.edu.au...   
   > wim wrote:   
   >   
   > > "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.   
   >   
   > I won't try and go into a long technical discussion why Lisp is   
   > the "best" language for AI.  It's been done many times before.   
   > Unfortunately I have to disagree with your statement, and would   
   > contend that Lisp is fighting a battle to hang on in AI, as many   
   > succumb to the ubiquity of Java.   
   >   
   > On a practical level we prefer someone with Lisp experience for the jobs   
   > we advertised because all of our systems (except the UI) are written in   
   > Lisp.   
   >   
   > My personal feeling, though, is that if God were to have invented a   
   > computer language instead of John McCarthy, it would've looked very   
   > much like Lisp.   
   >   
   > > I would love to get a job like this by the way, but I have only had some   
   > > experience with Scheme at a study level.   
   >   
   > Take a serious look at Common Lisp.  It's not much different   
   > syntactically than Scheme, but includes the most powerful object   
   > system -- CLOS -- in existence, amongst other things.   
   >   
   > Larry   
      
   Thanks for all the replies.   
   I'm someone who prefers to program in C++, and I am presently   
   writing a Prolog interpreter in this language.  So I don't intend to   
   develop in Prolog, and my own requirements don't include LISP   
   in this case.  I was wanting information on what I might have been   
   doing wrong in my own approach, but I don't intend to change it.   
   I am not working full time, and it seems far fetched that I will get one   
   with   
   my interests.   
      
   John   
      
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