Common Lisp has often been called a “multi-paradigm” language, in that it allows you to program in many different styles, sometimes simultaneously: imperative, object-oriented, functional, statically typed, etc. It depends on what style you want to adopt, how your code will look.

Recently I’ve been porting a C++ accounting system to Common Lisp. And after only six weeks, the port is nearly complete — a feat I credit to the power of the Lisp language and the facilities it offers I’d been forced to replicate in C++.

But as the port nears completion, I find myself questioning some of the design decisions. Did C++ force me down a path where Lisp can offer a better alternative?