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CS441 - Homework #2

I believe that the cost of LISP is relatively high, but is worth the cost for the right application.
 
Since university-trained programmers will generally have only a basic understanding of LISP and 'technician' programmers will have been trained in the basics of a particular, (usually) non-LISP language, there will be some training cost involved. Once an understanding of LISP is gained, the writability of LISP will come through and have a good cost structure.
 
Since original LISP was an interpreted language, there was no cost of compiling. However, this will exaggerate the execution cost since all type checking and error handling will be done at run-time.
 
The cost of implementation of LISP may be large since free interpreters may have no support, and the cost and support for production-level interpreters/compilers may be high.
 
As well, the reliability of LISP is overall very good, but implementations may have different reliabilities and technical support (free vs. purchased).
 
Generally, the maintenance of LISP itself does not seem to be outrageous. However, the cost of training a new programmer or hiring an outside consultant can be great if the original programming team is not available.
 
This all being said, LISP may be worth the cost in a powerful decision-making role and data warehousing processes - similar to a CEO's role in a company. Other languages may be used for GUI-based data input, but LISP could be used to aid in decision making.