From what I understand the hardest thing to teach new programmers coming to Java or Javascript or even Python is assignment and mutability. That has a huge cognitive overhead.
Contrast that with the lambda-form structure and substitution method of evaluating expressions in Lisp.
(function arg1 arg2...)
It's consistent and simple. You can introduce mutable variables and iteration later. With just the substitution method you can go very far as demonstrated by Gerald Sussman in the SICP lectures.
You color your argument with a preference for imperative programming by over-simplifying Java; arguably one of the more difficult languages to teach beginners. The venerable, "Hello, world!" exercise is an illustrative example.
Again contrast that with:
(format t "Hello, world!")
I think it is possible that Lisp is not that hard to teach as we're meant to believe by arguments like this. Java is a fine language but it requires a fair amount of expertise to use effectively. The same can be said of C. Python and other dynamic languages of the sort might come close to lowering the "difficulty" bar but I wouldn't discount Lisp just because it seems foreign to you.
From what I understand the hardest thing to teach new programmers coming to Java or Javascript or even Python is assignment and mutability. That has a huge cognitive overhead.
Contrast that with the lambda-form structure and substitution method of evaluating expressions in Lisp.
It's consistent and simple. You can introduce mutable variables and iteration later. With just the substitution method you can go very far as demonstrated by Gerald Sussman in the SICP lectures.You color your argument with a preference for imperative programming by over-simplifying Java; arguably one of the more difficult languages to teach beginners. The venerable, "Hello, world!" exercise is an illustrative example.
Again contrast that with:
I think it is possible that Lisp is not that hard to teach as we're meant to believe by arguments like this. Java is a fine language but it requires a fair amount of expertise to use effectively. The same can be said of C. Python and other dynamic languages of the sort might come close to lowering the "difficulty" bar but I wouldn't discount Lisp just because it seems foreign to you.