Richard Gabriel, "On Lisp", OOPSLA 2007, 2007/12

Dick Gabriel not only talks about the history of Lisp, but also his career when he stepped out to study poetry and returned to a field where his skills were obsolete.

In this Episode we’re talking with Dick Gabriel on Lisp. We started by looking at artificial intelligence as the historic context of Lisp, the goals AI tried to reach, and how Lisp was supposed to help reach those.

We then discussed the language itself, starting with the Data As Program / Program As Data concept that is a foundation for Lisp. [....]

After a discussion about the various dialects of Lisp and Scheme, we concluded the Lisp discussion by explaining why Lisp did not really catch on (“AI Winter”) and Lisp’s role in today’s industry.

We ended the episode with a couple of details about Dick’s other life as a poet and his Poem a Day effort.

Episode 84: Dick Gabriel on Lisp | Software Engineering Radio

MP3 audio