I went from SML, Caml Light, and OCaml to Common Lisp, and then to Scheme.
I prefer Scheme by far to any other language I've ever used (which includes a whole bunch of languages not listed above).
For me, Scheme is much more fun to program in than OCaml, etc. With OCaml I found myself constantly wrestling with the compiler to get my program to compile, and had problems decyphring its obscure error messages, which seemed to require taking university-level courses on type theory in order to be understandable.
With Scheme, my programs mostly "just work", and I can program the way I think.
Some people have problems with Scheme's parenthesis, but I personally quickly learned to love them because they make scope explicit and obvious. Through long and bitter experience, I've learned to value explicitness and clarity in programs above almost everything else. Scheme is great for that.
True, Scheme might not be as safe as OCaml and friends, but for ease of programming, speed of development, and sheer pleasure, I find it very hard to beat.
I prefer Scheme by far to any other language I've ever used (which includes a whole bunch of languages not listed above).
For me, Scheme is much more fun to program in than OCaml, etc. With OCaml I found myself constantly wrestling with the compiler to get my program to compile, and had problems decyphring its obscure error messages, which seemed to require taking university-level courses on type theory in order to be understandable.
With Scheme, my programs mostly "just work", and I can program the way I think.
Some people have problems with Scheme's parenthesis, but I personally quickly learned to love them because they make scope explicit and obvious. Through long and bitter experience, I've learned to value explicitness and clarity in programs above almost everything else. Scheme is great for that.
True, Scheme might not be as safe as OCaml and friends, but for ease of programming, speed of development, and sheer pleasure, I find it very hard to beat.