- First name: Chris
 
- Last name: Perkins
 
- Email address: REMOVED
 
- Phone number(s): 800-282-5361
 
- Postal code: 98122
 
- City: Seattle
 
- State or province: Washington (WA)
 
- Country: USA
 
- Organization(s) you work for or study at
   (please supply the name and city for each organization): 
Media Lab, Inc.  - Longmont Colorado
 
- Fields of interest
   (e.g. computer linguistics, numerical analysis, business software,
    medicine, bioinformatics): 
web and multimedia plug-ins
 
- Have you written any Lisp-related papers? If so, please supply
   bibliographical references (and URL's, if possible).
no
 
- Have you developed or participated in the development of any
   Lisp-related programs or libraries? If so, please supply a URL,
   if possible.
a wxWindows binding for XLISP 3, but it is not publicly released yet.
 
- Lisp variants you have used (e.g. Common Lisp, Scheme, Dylan):
Common Lisp, Scheme, XLISP 3
 
- Lisp variants you're currently using or intend to use in the
   near future: 
XLISP 3, Common Lisp
 
- Lisp implementations you have used
   (e.g. CMUCL, Lispworks, Allegro Common Lisp): 
Corman Common Lisp, XLISP 3
 
- Lisp implementations you're currently using or intend to use
   in the near future: 
Corman Common Lisp, XLISP 3, possibly LispWorks
 
- Computer platforms on which you're using or deploying Lisp: 
Windows, Mac  OSX, Mac OS 9
 
- Number of years of experience with Lisp: 
3
 
- Experience with other programming languages (please supply the
   number of years and the name of the language):
C/C++   - 13 years
Java  -  5 years
a whole slew of controller languages, scripting languages, etc. over an 18  year period, 
very few used for more than 2 years
 
- Total number of years of programming experience: 
18 years
 
- Do you use Lisp:
   - at work (if so, how much)
   - for study (if so, how much)
   - as a hobby (if so, how much)
I use Lisp at work.  Right now it is 75% of my programming time.  
A year  ago it was less than 15%.
 
- Are you using Lisp as much as you would like to?
   If not, why not?
Yes.
 
- Do you see any obstacles to further Lisp growth (if so, what
   is the biggest obstacle in your opinion)?
Many of Lisp's unique selling propositions are slowly being co-opted by  other languages.  They are 
catching up. I worry that given enough time an  ungainly combination of C# and XML (just as an example) 
might effectively  cover 95% of Lisps unique advantages. If it means that those other  languages must 
become Common Lisp to replace it, so be it.  But I can well  imagine a scenario where they are not a 
Lisp, but perhaps "close enough".  For present users of Lisp, this might not be important, but to users 
of  other languages who would be considering Lisp it certainly would be.  Oh  well, I guess improvement 
is improvement.
 
- Would you be interested in a Lisp-related job or contract work?
If I become unemployed, yes.
 
- Is your organization interested in hiring Lisp programmers?
Not at present.
 
- Are you currently participating in Lisp-related meetings?
   If so, where and how often?
   If not, would you be interested in such meetings?
Presently the Seattle Area Lisp Users Group meets very infrequently (twice  a year?) and 
I've not been able to make any of the meetings yet, though I  would very much like to 
attend.