Jeffry J. Brickley wrote: Well, speaking Lisp, I would have several comments... I think we're missing the point here. Where does Lisp come from? In the sixties, poor old computer programmers were programming on punch cards! Along comes the latest in compiler technology, a new language concept, based on Church's Lambda Calculus. The revolutionary concept was the 'pointer', or reference type. Never before had this appeared in a compiled language. For this reason, Lisp had to wait until the late seventies/early eighties before general hardware caught up to the point that the true power of Lisp could be utilized. Before this time, the demands on memory and performace were just too great for the average computer. Even in the eighties, with the explosion of expert systems (AI), many of which are based on the Lisp syntax/ideas, specialized hardware was built to run Lisp at top speed. It was expensive, but fortunes were made (and lost) in the Lisp machine market. Compared to Lisp, with its origins right back at the start, C and C++ are babies. Javea, and C# are even newer, building on the lessons of the last 40 years (yes, Lisp is this old). That Lisp still has a role to play at all is a tribute to a language based on pure mathematics, with much power, subtlety, and grace. Do yourself a favor. Get to know a little Lisp, and appreciate a part of history.