Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. UNIX is the IDE for Lisp and Python. It's very functional and very customizable, but the learning curve is kind of high. So high, in fact, that most people never realize it's an IDE.
How high? I've been trying to learn lisp for a while, and it's been kicking my ass. How long did it take you?
A day spent reading the emacs lisp manual was enough to productive. CL is a whole 'nother animal, but once you get a feel for the language, it's just a matter of searching the hyperspec. Eventually you learn that the function you are trying to implement is probably already built in in about 12 different variants.