1: I really don't see how CL or Clojure are any more complicated than, say, Rust or C++. If anything, CL and Clojure are simpler, just different.
3: Most useful libraries are portable between different CL implementations. The choice is really "CL or Clojure or which Scheme implementation?" Not to discredit Picolisp or Shen, but those languages feel very much (esp. Shen) like a research language. Picolisp has more of a convincing productivity story, but doesn't seem like it has the momentum of existing competitors and I fail to see an advantage in using it. Depending on your goals, the choice between Lisps can be pretty simple.
5: Portacle is helping in this area by making it much easier for a beginner to learn CL without fussing with setting up SLIME and Emacs. Clojure also has an IntelliJ plugin, cursive. For Scheme, Racket seems like a painless way to start learning.
6. You can easily go multi-core in CL. It isn't as easy as Clojure, but it's definitely easier than C++ or Java (the language).
7: Clojure has access to all of Java's libraries. CL does struggle compared to Python in this area.
8: Lisp related books are among the best in CS. SICP, LoL, etc. are timeless.
The Lisp family of languages definitely have room to improve, but the ecosystem is healthier today than 20 years ago, for sure.
>Lisp related books are among the best in CS. SICP, LoL, etc. are timeless.
Lisp books also tend to have the characteristic where you have to find the "right" compiler for the examples to work. I've yet to pick up a book where all the examples "just work".
Land of Lisp worked well for me. Can't remember any major issues. (That said, I think I also used racket for most of the work, so I had to change some things consciously.)
Though, this is a bit of a hard problem for authors. Most code that can fit as snippets or short examples does not have what any code in real projects would have. To that end, the code is literally made mainly for you to try and simulate in your head. Running on a computer is a convenience and should be used, but the goal is to internalize it all. Right?
I wonder if LoL was not referring instead to Let Over Lambda which I'd call more timeless... For Land of Lisp there is some implementation specific code the author uses, but he points that out, points out that there are libraries that make a de facto standard for the behavior, but didn't want to introduce quicklisp. (It's a fun book but not the best if your goal is getting productive in a work environment fast, in which case learning about asdf and quicklisp early on is crucial...)
Lisp books in my experience have been the most reliable for running old code. I can take Lisp code from 1960 and almost entirely unmodified run it in a modern Common Lisp implementation because there's a direct line of heritage. If a book from the 90s says it supports Common Lisp, well hey, barring errata the code still works every time...
That form of stability is one that I really wish modern developers would aspire to. I love that I can still run code in some of the old books. Seems the newer my book, the less likely I am to be able to run its code. :(
3: Most useful libraries are portable between different CL implementations. The choice is really "CL or Clojure or which Scheme implementation?" Not to discredit Picolisp or Shen, but those languages feel very much (esp. Shen) like a research language. Picolisp has more of a convincing productivity story, but doesn't seem like it has the momentum of existing competitors and I fail to see an advantage in using it. Depending on your goals, the choice between Lisps can be pretty simple.
5: Portacle is helping in this area by making it much easier for a beginner to learn CL without fussing with setting up SLIME and Emacs. Clojure also has an IntelliJ plugin, cursive. For Scheme, Racket seems like a painless way to start learning.
6. You can easily go multi-core in CL. It isn't as easy as Clojure, but it's definitely easier than C++ or Java (the language).
7: Clojure has access to all of Java's libraries. CL does struggle compared to Python in this area.
8: Lisp related books are among the best in CS. SICP, LoL, etc. are timeless.
The Lisp family of languages definitely have room to improve, but the ecosystem is healthier today than 20 years ago, for sure.