Quote:Original post by ToohrVyk
Both languages are reasonably efficient. In fact, despite providing you more control than C++, LISP can be and has been used to achieve competitive technological advantages over firms who were using other things, and even had at one point in time hardware dedicated to running it!

That was a great read, thanks! I actually printed it out and am now learning LISP from having read the arguments presented in that article. The author makes mention of quite a few things that I have self consciously started to notice about my own development perspectives in relation to 'thinking in your favorite language'.

Quote:Original post by Crazyfool
Experts use whatever tool (i.e. language) needed for the task. I am not an expert and I use C++. Some experts use C++, though.

I was going to answer similarly, except perhaps more smart-alecky. Experts in C use C, experts in C++ use C++, experts in C# use C#, et cetera.

Nobody's really chimed in on the 3D modeling question except for the brief summary by Wolfdog. It's kind of funny, Autodesk developed 3DS Max, bought the developers of Maya 3 years ago, and they just acquired the company behind XSI. So be prepared officially to spend thousands of dollars if you want any of those. Of course, I suspect many people that use any of them have not spent a dime on the software. I believe Autodesk is like Adobe is with Photoshop, they sort of turn a blind eye to illegal downloading and usage of their software because it gets aspiring young graphic designers locked into their software such that they have to use it when they enter the workforce, which is where they make most of their money - from businesses.

Anyway, I would encourage those interested in 3D modeling to try Blender, a free and open source alternative to those listed above. It doesn't have an intuitive interface, so you can't just install it and jump right in to modeling, but it does have extensive documentation including tons of tutorials. It's sort of similar to vi or emacs in that way, there's a higher learning curve but once you overcome that, it pays off in productivity. It has a great deal of extra features too, including a non-linear video editor (as part of its animation toolset) and a built-in game engine.

Lastly, I've also seen Caligari's trueSpace used before, in particular for the free resources over at Reiner's Tilesets. That package is now freeware since Caligari was bought out by Microsoft.