Why prototype in LISP

One of the features I like the most in LISP is to be able to change the code in the middle of the running process and to be able to keep evaluating the functions and variables with the new behavior on the fly. This is an extremely powerful tool when you are trying to figure out the right structure for a given problem. You can play with the different structures and still be able to keep the application running and see how it reacts to the changes you make. It is like running in a self-evaluating forever debug mode. But that is exactly what LISP is, isn't it?

I can say that when I think about prototyping at the model designing level I am more and more choosing to do it in LISP and then, when I feel more confident about the model port it to c# than to start straight in C#. It is simply more productive in my opinion.

Lisp project template with Emacs

In my first post I was describing the environment I had to use Lisp. After a few issues, usually related to the fact that Eclipse is really a memory hungry application. I moved back to the Emacs + Slime combination. The only difference from what I used to do prior using cusp is that now I work with a "project" file, just the way eclipse + cusp does. I like the idea of working with an asd file to define the files and dependencies in my project and it is very effective to load and compile all lisp files from my project and start being productive right away.

In order to get there I created this symbolic link on my .sbcl/system folder to point to my asd file.

By doing this you are able to load your project using asdf.