I''ve heard rumors that there is a language outdating LISP/outdating LISP soon. (as far as being the main language for AI.) if you know a lot on this subject, please leave a detailed post or give a good link. I am currently starting to study LISP, and need to know if it is worth the time, or if i need to hold out and stick with C++ or what not for now. Thanks If barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

That rumor is common this time of year.

quote: Original post by llama_beast
I''ve heard rumors that there is a language outdating LISP/outdating LISP soon. (as far as being the main language for AI.)

Which non-specific rumours would those be?

quote:
if you know a lot on this subject, please leave a detailed post or give a good link.

What subject? There is no such language, there is no such subject.

Lisp is worth learning.

There are two LISP books that I know of that are freely available on the internet.

''On Lisp'' is freely downloadable here. It''s not really for beginners though I think.

''Successful Lisp'' is available here. This is one of the better introductions I''ve come across so far. And it goes pretty in-depth too I believe. (I''m not very advanced on Lisp myself.)

Also, there''s a crapload of tutorials. Just use Google.

Where LISP excels and offers a fully different paradigm from traditional programming is the concept of the symbol.

The symbol, in a trasitional programming language, is a variable name or a function name. Yet the program retains no knowledge of these values.

LISP does not distinguish between the value of a variable or the name of a variable with respect to access or manipulation. Perhaps what I''ve said does not completely or accurately convey the concept, but it should get you thinking.

The point is, a LISP program is also a LISP value - the list. A LISP symbol - the name of a variable - is also a LISP value - possibly to another variable. In this way, LISP program has easy access and introspection to itself.

... and hence it can write parts of itself at runtime.