1 or 2 or 3 Full-Time Lisp Developers Needed. (Lisp? Really? Yes. Lisp.) Posted 24 May 2008.

Please bid the monthly salary you require in US dollars for working 200 (two hundred) hours per month. If you are part of a team of 2 or 3 developers, and wish to apply as a team, please list the rate for each developer in the PM (personal message). We are currently looking for 1 or 2 or 3 very clever, full-time software application developers (not mere coders) to work with us for at least a year but hopefully longer. We have many challenging new development projects that we need help with (no maintenance). You must develop software for us using Steel Bank Common Lisp [login to view URL] Our development server runs Apache and mod_lisp. Of course, we assume you have practically no experience developing with Lisp. We know that very, very few developers use Lisp. Therefore, we recommend you review "Practical Common Lisp" [login to view URL] and "Common Lisp HyperSpec" [login to view URL] Why did we choose Lisp? Isn't Lisp almost, well, almost a dead language? Sort of. We realize that Lisp is hardly used in software development except by a very small group of elite software developers. We chose Lisp for one simple reason: we believe it is the best tool available for building most of the software we need. In other words, we think Lisp is a great language. If you study Lisp we suspect you'll think it's a great language too. If you prefer to use Java or .NET then you definitely should not apply for this job. We do not like those languages at all. We feel strongly that those languages are like diseases. However, we do not mind if you currently develop in one of those languages and, like a refugee from a war zone, are seeking to escape. Furthermore, even though we like and respect Perl, Python, and Ruby on Rails, if you prefer to use one of these languages then you should not apply for this job either. We know Perl is for the old-timers, Python is what they use at Google, and that all the cool kids these days use Ruby on Rails. We are not trying to be "old school" [login to view URL] or to be like Google or to be cool. No. We are attempting to develop great software. We did not inadvertently or naively choose Lisp. Not at all. We very carefully weighed the pros and cons of various languages and chose to use Lisp. You must be willing to teach yourself Steel Bank Common Lisp. We will *not* pay for you to learn Steel Bank Common Lisp. You must currently have a *reliable* high speed Internet connection (DSL, Cable, T-1, etc). We will provide you with no benefits whatsoever. No medical benefits. No holidays. Nothing. But we will pay all fees you will be assessed to receive your money, such as fees charged by GetAFreelancer and ATM machine fees. We will not withhold any taxes from your salary whatsoever nor will we report your earnings to you local tax authorities. That will be your responsibility alone. Except for the initial 10 day probationary period (during which we will only permit you to work 2 hours each day), we will pay you daily for the work you completed. Therefore, you will not need to, essentially, extend much credit to us. In other words, normally you will only need to trust us to pay you for one day of work. During the 50 days following the 10 day probationary period, we will allow you to work as few as 2 hours each day but may allow you to work up to 10 hours per day. In other words, after the 10 day probationary period we may allow you to begin working full-time for us. However, we will not require you to begin working full-time during this 50 day period. Why? Because we realize you may currently, for example, have a full-time job which you probably don't like, but at least "pays the bills." However, after this 50 day period, you will need to work 200 hours each month for us. Therefore, if you currently have a full-time, then within 60 days after begin working with us you will almost certainly need to quit your current job. We will permit you to work any hours of the day you prefer. In other words, we do not care what hours of the day you work. Finally, please submit sample source code which you alone (or each of your team members alone) have created so we can evaluate your individual coding ability. Why? Because if you bid on this project we want to be able to properly ascertain the quality of the code you have created in the past. We are not looking to steal anyone else's software. Not at all. We merely want to review a sample of code you have created in the past so we can judge your ability. Furthermore, we do not need an entire portion of source code you have completed. Instead the we only needs a sufficient portion of source code you have created so that we can properly judge the quality of your code. You may submit source code in any language you like which can be opened on a Linux or Macintosh platform. In other words, please do not package your files in Visual Studio or any other framework. Your files must be available individually and not packaged (except as a .zip or .rar file). We have had trouble in the past with tests that candidates have submitted C++ which they created with Visual Studio. The software architect who will review your code normally uses Linux and Macintosh but not Windows. The software architect is very reluctant to boot up any of his machines in Windows because he abhors Windows for both practical as well as philosophical reasons. Therefore, please make it easy for the software architect to review your code.