Do I have to learn Emacs?
Not necessarily. The simplest possible development Lisp environment consists of a text editor and an xterm. Since the language standard provides facilities for dynamically loading and compiling files of Common Lisp source code and since virtually every Common Lisp implementation provides an interactive Read-Eval-Print Loop (REPL) you can get a taste of Common Lisp’s interactive development style by opening your source files in a text editor of your choosing and then starting Lisp at the command line (e.g. in an xterm). From there you can edit your code in the editor, save it, and then LOAD it from the REPL and test it interactively. You can also write code directly in the REPL but then you’ll have to cut-n-paste it into your editor if you want to save it. However, most Lispers would consider this is a pretty primitive way to work. A good Lisp development environment, for instance, provides a way to compile and load files and individual expressions (such as function definitions) from wi
