Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hello, yes, it required a commercial implementation of Common Lisp, of which a license at that time (and still today!) can be purchased cheaply, of which you could have downloaded the "Personal Edition", which has very few limitations, none of which concerning the language itself. And if you have asked for an evaluation version, you would certainly have received a time constrained full version of that in your eyes st…
Well, I was forced to use Windows+LispWorks in college and I found myself (and my classmates) shouting "stupid LipsWorks!" at it more than we should have. The GUI leaves a lot to be desired and it crashed on my face regularly, progress lost included. Exploratory programming was a real nightmare and I got into a workflow where I basically had to copy any progress into Notepad and paste it all back from the beginning w…
"Well, I was forced to use Windows+LispWorks in college and I found myself (and my classmates) shouting "stupid LipsWorks!" at it more than we should have." - this is usually (at least in the context of LispWorks very unusual for years already (me personally have used it for about a decade in the last 14 years for production software) - I don't know in which decade you tried it, but at least in the 21-st century LispWorks has been pretty stable for the majority of it's users as far as I have heard, and some of them run trading platforms for example on it. Yes, the GUI has always been a weak point of the product, but to have a workflow as you describe points to errors outside of LispWorks - probably education, probably not having called a single time the support I have praised earlier etc. But the important part is not who would cry louder - you can gather the whole class and continue to shout "stupid LispWorks" - it's without value for all.
"If GP called it stupid he might have his own reasons to do so (even if he could've said it more politely). Dismissing his opinion because of how much effort someone has put into LW is not helpful." - Well - his opinion is uninformed, uneducated and probably insulting. He seems to be pretty young and more loud than knowledgable, so it has been a chance to help.
"The man hours of work mean nothing.." - Sure - it's just again unedecuated in that specific case. "..because as a consumer I don't care how much work you've put into it, but only about the quality of the product.." - I really don't know how a bunch of undergraduates can for so long not listen to their professor or to not call support and to torture themselfes with notepad and still long after finishing that school still not reflect about their experience and the right actions to take in comparison to just moaning. "...and still have which, based on my experience, is lacking..." - Sure, the GUI is and probably will be lacking in every Common Lisp implementation incl. LispWorks'. But if you have listened to your professor at that time, you would at least today know, that this has never been his main point of teaching with Common Lisp or that LispWorks is a tool for several companies running some important software without crashes. 10 years ago as well as today.
Whatever - the discussion/argumentation evolves to a kindergarden. My point, I repeat, has been to sensibilize the GP to some need for learning before categorizing the work of others as "stupid commercial". Either I can animate you or the GP to learn more or I can't. That's all. It's your life, not mine.
Cheers