Lisp in the real world

Question

I have experimented with Lisp (actually Scheme) and found it to be a very beautiful language that I am interested in learning more about. However, it appears that Lisp is n

Answer 1

as a small startup we've built up something some people call an "application server". but in fact it's just a bunch of integrated common lisp libraries for sql connectivity and web applications. some details are available at cl-dwim project page

using that we have developed and operate a web application for the hungarian government that collect data from the local governments and calculates the relevant part of the budget of the country. this is the second budget we are planning now.

it has about 4000 users, and it runs on a cluster of computers.

as of "academic language": we are playing with things like persistent continuations for business process modelling. it's some random lisp code with a few extra process-related primitives and a few constraints. it can stop at random points in the code and fall asleep (get comitted into the database) while it waits for some external event.

is it practical or academic? you decide... :)

Answer 2

If my plans work out, we will all be using Scheme in 5 years from now! ;p

Answer 3

There are plenty of companies, projects, and products that use Lisp in a variety of roles — I've done work for several of them.

There are two relevant points:

1. you may never know that your latest piece of consumer electronics was built with, or even programmed in, Common Lisp, or that some service you use is powered by a Lisp server. It would be incorrect to conclude that Lisp is "never used".

2. … and, like so many domains, those jobs never appeared on Monster.com. Just because you've never seen a job posting for it doesn't mean that there are no Lisp-required or right-tool-for-the-job opportunities out there.

Answer 4

Paul Graham has used and written about ViaWeb that was written in LISP

Read about it here - Beating the Average

Answer 5

Scheme programming language is used as a scripting language by FLUENT Flow Modelling Software (computational fluid dynamics, CFD).

Answer 6

Some more recent ones:

• Thanandar, a German browser game: http://www.thanandar.de/
• Aula Polska, a Polish entrepreneur community: http://www.aulapolska.pl/
• LAMsight, a medical survey application: https://www.lamsight.org/
• Wigflip, a playground of silly gfx: http://wigflip.com/ :)
• Clutu, multiplayer AJAX Crossword Puzzles: http://www.clutu.com/

The first three of those were written using Weblocks, a CL web framework. Wigflip and Clutu use pure Hunchentoot.

Now get coding! :)