Modern, functional Common Lisp: Myths and best practices

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Myth: Common Lisp is old and does not enjoy the features of modern languages from recent years.Truth: While the Common Lisp standard is from the 1990s, many modern libraries have continuously updated the language.One of the biggest selling points of Common Lisp (and Lisp languages in general) is that the language itself is extensible. This means that if new paradigms become fashionable, they can easily be added to the language.In particular, Common Lisp has the reputation among functional programmers of being very imperative and object-oriented. While these styles were popular in the past, nothing prevents us from programming functionally in Common Lisp.As with many languages, Common Lisp packages can be use-d, which means all symbols will be merged in the current name space, or import-ed, which means all symbols will be accessible only via the package prefix.The benefit of use is that importing a language-enhancing package gives us a feel that the enhancements are first class.The dra…