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Why would a non-programmer want to download, install and run a CL IDE?

1. It is a potential first step on the way from non-programmer to programmer.

2. "Easy enough for a non-programmer" may also say something about how easy it is for a programmer.

I think the number of non-programmers who think 'I want to learn to program; I'll start with common lisp but emacs is too difficult!' is so small it is not a group worth considering. It's probably MIT & Stanford undergrads?

It's their IDE and they can design it how they want, but that's a weird goal for a CL IDE.

"It should be easy enough for" sets a UX bar, not a target audience. Kind of like the English phrase "X is so easy that even a toddler could do it," regardless of whether such a statement is figurative or literal.

You haven't seen the Lisp subreddit then, there is a post complaining about having to learn Emacs at least once every week or so.

I personally suspect that the overwhelming majority of those complaining would find a different reason to not learn lisp if the Emacs barrier were removed, but I very much might be wrong.

I wanted to avoid Emacs so I discovered Lem (so now I live in a different Emacs when writing CL), so it's not always this way

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