I really like this language. The core libraries have sensibly named functions, getting it to generate or talk to C is trivial, and it's simple to get a GUI or a small script or something going. It has good bindings to SDL, which makes it easy to do some game programming. The REPL has a great online help facility, and interactive reflection is simple, so there's little head-scratching. I used it years back, when my main exposure to Lisp had been CL, and it was refreshingly convenient.
The only problems I have with it are the minor one of the OO syntax (minor as I never made much use of the OO features) and the somewhat more major issue of the dynamic scoping (no closures). It was a deal-breaker for me but was pretty educational, as I had not quite understood dynamic versus lexical scoping at the time.
Except those issues, it's a great Lisp, especially if you need one that plays nicely with the OS and is easy to learn. (And it is pretty speedy to boot, even respectably speedy interpreted.)
The only problems I have with it are the minor one of the OO syntax (minor as I never made much use of the OO features) and the somewhat more major issue of the dynamic scoping (no closures). It was a deal-breaker for me but was pretty educational, as I had not quite understood dynamic versus lexical scoping at the time.
Except those issues, it's a great Lisp, especially if you need one that plays nicely with the OS and is easy to learn. (And it is pretty speedy to boot, even respectably speedy interpreted.)
(Edited, removed a bit where I repeated myself.)