# Should I learn LISP as a beginner programmer?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-learn-lisp-as-a-beginner-programmer/524042>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 7, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-learn-lisp-as-a-beginner-programmer/524042 "2010-01-07T16:50:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Terry\_Kennedy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@Terry\_Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terry_Kennedy)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-learn-lisp-as-a-beginner-programmer/524042/41 "2010-01-11T05:42:57Z")

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> [@El\_Zagna](#):
>
> Reading this post reminds me of why I got out of programming. No matter which language you pick, it’ll be out of fashion in 5 years.

And if you don’t continually use it, you’ll forget it. I used to be considered one of the best 8080 assembler coders and was in the top percentage of DG Nova assembler coders, and these days I barely remember those at all. Not to mention Autocoder, RPG (non-II), and a bunch of other dead languages. When I was teaching CS, I was the instructor people came to when they couldn’t get their program to compile or run properly, since I was passable in a dozen and a half or so languages. I also knew most of the compiler quirks for the various machines in use and could tell the student when it wasn’t their fault.

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**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-learn-lisp-as-a-beginner-programmer/524042/42 "2010-01-11T19:34:13Z")

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> [@El\_Zagna](#):
>
> Reading this post reminds me of why I got out of programming. No matter which language you pick, it’ll be out of fashion in 5 years.

During the Y2K panic, an old friend of my dad’s (also born in the mid to late '50s) made enough money to retire early. He was a COBOL programmer.

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**Author:** ![Elvis\_Chimney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/50afbb/32.png) [@Elvis\_Chimney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elvis_Chimney)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-learn-lisp-as-a-beginner-programmer/524042/43 "2010-01-12T14:15:06Z")

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When I started at university (in 1993), Scheme was the language of choice for all of our introductory programming classes. It has a number of advantages as a beginners language - it’s small, simple, and it does a good job of introducing some ideas which might be confusing for the beginner - namely the list data structure and the concept of recursion.

I believe Scheme and Lisp were used quite heavily at the time in the field of AI but I have no idea whether or not that’s still the case.

These days I only really work in C, with a bit of occasional Python for test scripts and the like, so I can’t say I use my Lisp skills much, but for an introduction to the general field of CS, I think it was quite a good introductory language. I’m not sure how much use it would be though if you just wanted to learn programming.

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