The Howdy Glossary

Common Lisp is a high-level programming language that evolved from Lisp and Maclisp, featuring rapid development through interactive expression evaluation, specialized functions and macros, object-oriented programming with the CLOS framework, and support for symbolic computation. Designed to solve complex problems efficiently, it is extensively used in software engineering and artificial intelligence research due to its incremental code compilation and runtime modification capabilities. Its development involved contributions from numerous researchers including Scott Fahlman and Richard P. Gabriel, culminating in standardization by the ANSI Common Lisp committee.

Distinctive features of Common Lisp include an interactive development environment allowing real-time expression evaluation, robust support for object-oriented programming via the CLOS framework, efficient problem-solving through specialized functions and macros, as well as capability for symbolic computation. These characteristics enable developers to perform rapid prototyping and iterative refinement of code. Additionally, Common Lisp's ability to incrementally compile code while allowing runtime modifications makes it adept at handling dynamic requirements in software engineering tasks and AI research where adaptability is crucial.

Despite competition from languages like Scheme known for simplicity, Clojure emphasizing immutability on the JVM platform, and Python with its strong ecosystem for data science and web development; Common Lisp maintains relevance due to its unique feature set. Its blend of interactive development tools, powerful abstractions through special functions/macros/object-oriented paradigms, combined with support for symbolic computation offers a versatile solution across diverse application domains such as AI research or computational linguistics. This combination positions Common Lisp as a potent tool for addressing varied challenges in software development by providing flexibility along with robust capabilities suited to intricate problem-solving scenarios.