First off, the title sounds like a "this language is better than this language" rant. I don't intend that. I intend to point out to something that I discovered while learning Ruby.
LISP is a language that has fallen behind, in terms of popularity compared to other languages like Python, PERL, C, and Java. It's used in the science crowd alot, but mainstream programming its arguable it has dropped back a bit.
Ruby is the new kid on the block and is jockying for positioning. I picked it up to learn it. It just hit me a while ago that Ruby, in it's innate object system, forces a certain level of abstraction onto the "mind space" of the deveoloper. So it influences the deveopers thinking in a negative way. LISP on the other hand, is pliable and simple enough for the dev to flow with his code map to his way of organizing the app at the time. Ruby lang maps the devs mind around "Ruby thinking." PERL in it's glory also does more of what LISP does, rather than Ruby. PERL is simple enough that the dev's mind takes it and flows with it so much that the level of abstraction optimal for the program is done automatically by the brain; so instead of thinking in PERL or LISP, the dev thinks in terms of the programming problem and the simplicity of LISP or PERL makes the expression of those thoughts very transparent and natural. This vital process if harder with Ruby since it's more disjointed in it's design. The language doesn't flow in the brain like LISP or PERL. Ruby was made to be easy for devs to code in, as in easier to get work done, but I think that aim had the cost of losing the ease of expression like in LISP and PERL. Ruby destroys "flow," or that ultra concentrated, focused state of mind. LISP and PERL doesn't.
What do you think?