My first experience with computers was a CP/M system at age 11, for
which I had no documentation other than a book about Basic
programming. I spent countless hours doing this. Then, for many years I
did not use computers at all (no one bought one for me), until I started
to study Industrial Management and used a computer for writing scripts
and explore the internet. After a few months I got fed up with Windows
and dove into the Linux world. Along with Linux came the most
fascinating application I knew so far: Emacs. And I found out how much I
was interested in working with computers. So I switched my major and
started to do something I like.

Then, one day I stumbled upon an article about a Lisp anniversary (must
have been the 40th), which basically said that Lisp was one of the
oldest programming languages still in use. That made me curious. I
started to search the web for Lisp, and then the library of our
department (full of good Lisp books, mostly from the 80s, barely read in
the last years), and what I found got me hooked. For me, a programming
language is a means to translate my thoughts into something the computer
can understand, and Lisp seems to fit better to the way I think than any
other language I know. I'm still a beginner to Lisp, but I can honestly
say that this is the first time after writing Basic as a child that I
really enjoy programming.

The people using Lisp also seem to be of a different kind than those
using the mainstream languages. This is the only newsgroup related to
programming I read for more than a few days. That has to mean something,
because I'm bored easily.

Felt good talking about it. Back to lurking now.

--
Wolfgang Mederle