Z:gnu-www-ja-rms-lisp--ea85f6-So Bernie saw that an applicat/en

So Bernie saw that an application &mdash; a program that does something useful for you &mdash; which has Lisp inside it and which you could extend by rewriting the Lisp programs, is actually a very good way for people to learn programming. It gives them a chance to write small programs that are useful for them, which in most arenas you can't possibly do. They can get encouragement for their own practical use &mdash; at the stage where it's the hardest &mdash; where they don't believe they can program, until they get to the point where they are programmers.