Lisp

Lisp is a programmible programming langauge. It has many amazing abilities and ITA software uses it to power orbitz.com. Lisp stands for list processor. Lisp starts with a few basic abilities but from them almost any programming concept one can think of can be embodied. It is used at MIT to teach computer programming. Lisp can be learned at home. Paul Graham used it to create what became yahoo store for beinging your storefront onto the web way back in 1995. Lisp is said to be able to steal any ability from any other programming language. The two most commonly used lisps today are scheme and common lisp. Lisp is being used at many labs and universities for advanced research into what computers can be commanded programmed to do and how easily. Pltscheme, scsh, sbcl, mitscheme, and clisp are all free software implementations. Free books on lisp include(among many), On lisp, Successful lisp, A Gentle introduction to symbolic computation, How to design programs, SICP from MIT (considered on of the greatest computer science teaching books of all time), and Practical common lisp. Paul Graham has some great lisp quotes and essays on www.paulgraham.com. Lisp runs on Linux, so one can have a computer running 100% free software and a good lisp as a home lab.