[Gardeners] In a Box options

[josh giesbrecht]

David Aue wrote:
In hindsight I would like to make the
> following suggestions for a LISP in a Box 2.0.
> 
> 1) Full power and free tools
> 
> 2) Most people run Microsoft Windows
> 
> 3) Packages make programming fun
> 
> 4) Learning a new and totally unfamiliar editor sucks


Let me just say: yes, yes, yes, and again yes.

I had a LOT of my Lisp enthusiasm sucked out of me simply because of all 
the hassles and limitations (both real and perceived) of wanting to set 
up a free Lisp environment to use in Windows.

I'm currently using Linux at home, in anticipation of getting a new PC 
which will be my WinXP box, so my personal Lisp hurdles have somewhat 
disappeared.  But I would be very interested in helping with a project 
to solve the problems listed above.

Just as a source of inspiration, here are a couple of coding 
environments I've played with recently that gave instant gratification:

Processing - http://processing.org/
A sort of mini-language and IDE, initially created for new media art 
programming.  Forget that it's Java-based, if that bothers you, just 
load it up and try it; the IDE is brilliant simplicity, a perfect 
example of how to get someone actually programming without having to 
muck around with any details, and keep it fun.  (The language 
abstractions make it awfully fun to create little visual thingamabobs, 
too.)

It's also a good example of making the easy things simple, and letting 
things get complex only when they need to.  There's no power taken away, 
it's just kept to the side until you look for it.

DrScheme - http://www.drscheme.org/
I've barely touched this, and my Scheme is rustier than my CL (ie. 
very), but you know what made this immediately score points over SLIME 
for me?
a) It runs in Windows.
b) I could compile a native, standalone, console-based .exe of Hello 
World in about the first minute of using it.  Is that even possible to 
do with any CL implementation that won't cost my employer over $500? 
I'd love to be coding up little command-line tools to make my life at 
work easier with CL, but right now I simply can't.


  - josh g.