This is really, really cool for packaging apps up for distribution to non-lisp nerds. Requiring people to install Quicklisp to load an app isn't the end of the world but still a chore for people who don't live in a REPL.

I'm really happy with how much progress Common Lisp has made since I started programming in it (around 4-5 years now I think). Implementations have all kind of agreed on the lowest common denominator of essential non-standard features: FFI, threading, sockets, etc.

It's still kind of a fringe language, but as a user, I am happy it's making so much progress.

Thanks for the work on Quicklisp, Zach =].

I wonder if there are any success stories of promoting CL at work in companies that had no previous experience with it, but encourage experimenting and new technologies?

I used it when I worked at AOL for doing some customized load testing, then used it in a startup I co-founded afterwards as the worker in a queue system. CL was probably the most stable part of our infrastructure.

That said, I haven't seen much wide adoption of it, aside from companies that are specifically CL shops. However, I think as more and more people use it for side projects within bigger companies it may see more mainstream adoption.

That is a good idea! I have it on my schedule to bring out a newer edition of my "Loving Lisp..." book in the next year, and I think I will use this to package the examples, even though installing Quicklisp should be something that any CL developer should do anyway.