Ask YC: Let's talk about Lisp(s)
However, I have too many choices and I'm not sure where to start!
I'll probably use whatever Lisp I end up picking up for exploratory programming since it seems very well suited to that. However, my 'exploratory programs' tend to turn into real applications that end up living for a little while.
Here are the biggest contenders that I can think of:
1 - CL by way of SBCL: The "Ford Truck" of the options; this has been around for awhile and while it has some warts, is pretty well known for getting the job done.
2 - Scheme via PLT / MzScheme: Lightweight, etc.. Lacks the number of libraries that CL has going for it. I would have felt more comfortable with a Scheme if r6rs weren't so controversial. I think I prefer a BDFL to design over committee.
3 - Getting into the more exotic lisps, Arc. I think the audience here knows enough about Arc that I don't need to explain it. However, I do have my concerns about the velocity of Arc; PG is a terribly busy guy and language design is not a small task.
4 - Clojure: Previously I'd knocked Clojure for living on the JVM. Now I realize it was a knee-jerk response to some bad Java experiences in the past. After looking at it in a little more depth, it's a pretty cool language. However, it still appears to be in the stage that very low level things are being decided. That's not necessarily a bad thing as Rich Hickey seems to have great reasoning behind his changes. It's just one of those language stability concerns.
If you were going to spend the time to learn just one of these languages today, which one would you choose?