[Gardeners] Possible FAQ question: The myth about Lisp code being 'write only'

[Jeremy Smith]

I was digging through the mp3-parser code the other day for my CDDB MP3
renaming project. Even though it wasn't documented heavily, and I didn't
know much about the libraries it was using, I was able to modify it to
do what I wanted quite quickly: To skip through the MPEG frames and
ignore the data, so I could count them all.

I think the reasons for this are:

	*That I could experiment with the REPL and interact with the
modifications I made, and find out what was going on (far easier than
compile-link-run etc).
	*Lisp is actually very readable, unlike C which is basically assembler
jumble at its worst. I don't tend to rewrite C code, I just compile it
unchanged as if it was an assembly-based library.
	*The Lisp macros help readability rather than hide meaning. For
instance a 'with-round-brackets' macro is self-explanatory. If you want
to port code, you'll have to port all the macros, but the same goes for
Java code that uses wierd class libraries.

I think this myth goes hand-in-hand with the 'prefix parentheses are
stupid' myth.

Anyway, just my 2 cents/pence.

Jeremy.