So I'd really like to try using Common Lisp more often, but I'm having a hard time getting into it. To start with, I thought I'd install SLIME, but of course it turns out the SLIME that ships with Debian is broken, so I have to check out the repository version. No big deal. Then, I thought I'd try fiddling with an IRC bot, everyone's favorite programming project. CL-IRC couldn't install (using ASDF-install) because one of its dependencies wouldn't build. Ok, I said, I don't mind working at a socket level. Oh, wait, here's half a dozen different socket libraries, some unmaintained, some still works in progress. I finally settled on usocket. Then, when Freenode's MOTD included a pound sign, which caused my reads to crash, I had to fiddle about some more until I finally found flexi-streams, which seems to be working ok for now.<p>Right now, Lisp is feeling like a massive twisty world of broken dependencies and half-finished libraries. Have I just hit a bad corner of the Lisp world? C may not be fancy but at least the standard libraries can talk to the network. I'd appreciate hearing from other people who came in, were similarly disgusted, but have come to understand the whole thing better.
Ask HN: What's the deal with Common Lisp?