Where is the überjar that Java programmers use?<p>LispWorks comes with the full thing, including graphics and IDE by default. You put it on the machine, run it and it comes with everything INCLUDING the incremental compiler.<p>Zero assembly needed.<p>Java is usually developed in a batch fashion with lots of files, classes/modules, jars, ... it needs an IDE like Eclipse that keeps track of all the components, has a build process, assemble the components, load it into some virtual machine, connect the external debugger, etc. etc.<p>Lisp applications (here with LispWorks) are often developed with a single image and incremental modification.<p>This not a small thing. This is a huge difference in convenience. Something that seems to be important for HIM (and me).<p>This incremental development capability is one reason I prefer to use Lisp. For me a piece of software is not a bunch of files that are on the disk, compiled and linked and then started. MY mental model which I like best is to see an application as a sea of running objects which are communicating (the part of dead code on the disk is only necessary to jump start and assemble these objects). Once the program is running in some primitive fashion, I tend to prefer to think about modifying the running objects by a bunch of changes (the changes tend to be in files, sometimes code, sometimes data - often code that more looks like executable data). Not everybody uses the same mental models when developing and I am spoiled by interactive systems like the Lisp Machine (which Jack also knows), where the philosophy is very similar:  <a href="http://lispm.dyndns.org/genera-concepts/genera.html" rel="nofollow">http://lispm.dyndns.org/genera-concepts/genera.html</a>