why lisp

LISP是一种计算机表处理语言，是函数型语言。它是LIST Processing的缩写，是研究人工智能的有力工具。LISP是继FORTRAN（FORTRAN是1954年提出，1956年开始使用）之后出现的第二个古老的（1958年提出，1960年开始使用）计算机高级语言，至今使用近五十年仍受重视，并为人工智能语言的发展作出了不可磨灭的贡献。它是一门历史悠久，用途广泛，功能极强，生命力极强的人工智能程序设计语言。

Lisp语言具有其他高级语言不可比拟的特征。它具有坚固的理论基础，丰富的表达能力，较强的可塑性，也提供了操作系统的许多设施，如命令解释器、文件管理、多任务等。所有这些特征为符号计算和人工智能研究提供了一个方便的工具。

First, Lisp is far from archaic or dead! Although it is one of the oldest programming languages (invented in the early 1960s, along with Fortran!), it is still widely used in the Artificial Intelligence community.

Lisp is also the only programming language with certain very useful features, such as true macros, that are critical when you are inventing a new programming language, because they enable you to extend Lisp's syntax¹. Lisp is the most natural language in which to write complex 'symbolic reasoning' programs, Symbolic reasoning involves manipulating conceptual objects, such as 'genes', 'ontologies', 'pathway models', and the like, and Lisp was built specifically for this sort of manipulation. This is why it has remained popular in the most advanced computing circles, esp. in Artificial Intelligence.


(1. Python, which is more-or-less lisp w/o the parens, is missing several critical features to do what we do in BioBike, esp. true macros, which enable you to manipulate expressions, create sub langauages, and engage in applicative programming. Someday the Python crowd will realize that uniform syntax is a good thing, and will re-adopt parens (or something like them), and then Python will just be Lisp again, and much the better for it! )