Which is the good book on lisp for a beginner?
Thanks a million
Sumedha
There's a pile of useful lisp info at www.alu.org - in particular, see
http://www.alu.org/table/learn.htm
Andrew
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
> I am sure this question must have appeared here n number of times,
> but could not find in the present archive.
>
> Which is the good book on lisp for a beginner?
A beginner at lisp, or a beginner at programming?
In the first case, "ANSI Common Lisp" by Paul Graham is often
recommended - and with good reason, it's great.
In the other case, I'm not sure - "Structure and Interpretation of
Computer Programs" is good, but
(a) it's probably a bit scary if you are genuinely new to programming
(b) it's scheme based, and while scheme is (usually regarded as) *a*
lisp, it is not "lisp" (which round here ususally means common
lisp, hence the above recommendation).
There are other suggestions at
http://www.lisp.org/table/books.htm
Have fun!
Michael
PS: There's an online book at
http://psg.com/~dlamkins/left/sl/sl.html
but I haven't looked at it much as I detest reading large amounts of
prose form the screen.
Michael Hudson wrote:
>
> Sumedha Kshirsagar <sumedha.k...@cui.unige.ch> writes:
>
> > I am sure this question must have appeared here n number of times,
> > but could not find in the present archive.
> >
> > Which is the good book on lisp for a beginner?
>
> A beginner at lisp, or a beginner at programming?
>
> In the first case, "ANSI Common Lisp" by Paul Graham is often
> recommended - and with good reason, it's great.
I am a beginner and don't agree at all. The presentation is shallow and
chaotic. I also have "LISP" 3rd Edition by Winston and Horn and so far
(chapter 8) its the best learn the language book I have seen. It is very
good at giving multiple examples using the same data sets so you can
learn the differences. SO far its simply a much better book.
Muddy
You can find it on the lisp home page. Theofficial address ist
http:\\www.lisp.org
If you are interested in books on Scheme as well, then "Simply Scheme" by
Harvey and Wright and "Concrete Abstraction" by Hailperin and others are
both nice (though I would prefer the latter).
Janos Blazi
Janos Blazi
Sumedha Kshirsagar <sumedha.k...@cui.unige.ch> schrieb in im
Newsbeitrag: 389AD445...@cui.unige.ch...
> I am sure this question must have appeared here n number of times, but
> could not find in the present archive.
>
> Which is the good book on lisp for a beginner?
>
> Thanks a million
>
> Sumedha
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Tim Josling
The Michael Hudson wrote:
> ...
> I am sure this question must have appeared here n number of times, but
> could not find in the present archive.
>
> Which is the good book on lisp for a beginner?
>
> Thanks a million
>
> Sumedha
I've just started learning LISP using the site
http://grimpeur.tamu.edu/~colin/lp
(Sorry, had a typo before.)
I liked it as a tutorial...
As far as the language goes.. Some people advocate alternating between
the masculine and feminine pronouns to avoid being sexist. I agree
it is somewhat distracting, but then I am a member of the oppressive male
oligarchy.
--
Kenneth P. Turvey <kt-...@SprocketShop.com>
--------------------------------------------
Luge strategy? Lie flat and try not to die.
-- Tim Steeves
[...]
> Some people advocate alternating between
> the masculine and feminine pronouns to avoid being sexist.
[...]
It's actually a bug in English. Pronouns in some languages do not
distinguish between sexes.
Robert
>> In the first case, "ANSI Common Lisp" by Paul Graham is often
>> recommended - and with good reason, it's great.
>
>I am a beginner and don't agree at all. The presentation is shallow and
>chaotic.
ANSI Common Lisp is bad for people new to programming, and especially
bad for people new to computer science. Graham assumes from the start
that the reader is familiar with some programming language (probably C
or BASIC) and so knows about functions, return values, iteration, files,
etc. It is by no means an introduction to programming, using common
lisp. It is a fairly complete, and fairly deep introduction to, and
exploration of, ANSI Common Lisp. It also has an excellent reference
appendix.
However, if you are familiar with programming, but want to learn common
lisp, It is, IMHO the very best book you could possibly buy. I've read
Slade's Object Oriented Common Lisp, Winston & Horn, and Norvig's
Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming, and none of these is
as concise and to the point as Graham's ANSI Common Lisp. As a language
tutorial and reference, it's simply the best. Robert my not like
Graham's terseness ("shallow and chaotic") but those who have learned
languages by reading compiler reference manuals will appreciate the fact
that Graham gets to the point, and quickly moves on to the next one.
Norvig's PAIP is also an excellent text, but it is much longer, and, of
course, more focused on AI applications. Graham has one, and only one
goal - to teach the reader common lisp as set forth in the ANSI
standard. This makes ACL much shorter, and more portable (seriously, you
can't really carry PAIP around with you for very long, its as big as
many medium sized cities' phone books). The HyperSpec is a superior
reference, but it will not teach you the language like ANSI Common Lisp.
just my $.02
Ralph
--
Raffael Cavallaro, Ph.D.
raf...@mediaone.net
http://www.psychologie.uni-trier.de:8000/elmart
If anyone can throw in a few more pennies about a basic pregramming
concepts book that will help me w/ lisp I'd appreciate that too.
Good Luck,
'H' (Howard) Elmer
Even most of those languages would be considered sexist based on the
same criteria. The selection of masculine vs. feminine pronouns depends
on what you are talking about. In some cases, like when discussing a
table or a chair, there is no room for offense, but in others, like when
discussing lawyers vs. janitors, somebody might be offended.
Even languages that have neuter pronouns don't use them everywhere they
might be considered applicable.
Languages evolve slowly... most of the time.
In English, most of the time, we use the masculine pronouns for neuter
nouns.
--
Kenneth P. Turvey <kt-...@SprocketShop.com> (not a linguist)
--------------------------------------------
Every country has the government it deserves.
-- Joseph de Maistre
P.S. In Lisp there is no concept of a pronoun, nor is there any concept
of masculine or feminine :-)
[...]
> Even languages that have neuter pronouns don't use them everywhere
> they might be considered applicable. [...]
In Hungarian there is no gender-dependent pronoun at all, so there is no
temptation!
> P.S. In Lisp there is no concept of a pronoun,
> nor is there any concept of masculine or feminine :-)
(defun lambda-amor (doubts &rest broken-hearts)
(declare (optimize speed (debug 0) (safety 0))
(ignore doubts broken-hearts))
(let* ((he (the guy next door))
(she (his girlfriend)))
(declare (type fixnum he)
(type bignum she))
(setf (husband her &allow-other-keys nil)
(unless (boundp he) (coerce him 'bit)))))
Robert
> P.S. In Lisp there is no concept of a pronoun, ...
Not quite true. There is a neuter pronoun in LOOP:
(loop for i from 0 to 1000
when (integer-square-root i)
collect it)
(defun integer-square-root (n)
;; Returns the square root of N if it is an integer value,
;; otherwise returns NIL.
(let ((root (sqrt n)))
(when (= root (truncate root))
(truncate root))))
Reference:
http://www.harlequin.com/support/books/HyperSpec/Body/sec_6-1-6.html
--
Thomas A. Russ, USC/Information Sciences Institute t...@isi.edu
> On Mon, 07 Feb 2000 18:01:36 -0500, Robert Monfera <mon...@fisec.com> wrote:
> >It's actually a bug in English. Pronouns in some languages do not
> >distinguish between sexes.
>
> Even most of those languages would be considered sexist based on the
> same criteria.
I don't know what Robert had in mind, but there are languages such as
Finnish, where the only distinction in pronouns is between
animate/inanimate. The pronoun used for persons has only one form and
you cannot distinguish between male and female.
Finnish "Se" means he or she, "On" means it.
--
Lieven Marchand <m...@bewoner.dma.be>
If there are aliens, they play Go. -- Lasker
>I don't know what Robert had in mind, but there are languages such as
>Finnish, where the only distinction in pronouns is between
>animate/inanimate. The pronoun used for persons has only one form and
>you cannot distinguish between male and female.
>
>Finnish "Se" means he or she, "On" means it.
Minor correction:
"se" means it, "on" means is, "hän" means he/she.
>--
>Lieven Marchand <m...@bewoner.dma.be>
>If there are aliens, they play Go. -- Lasker
-- Kimmo
((lambda (integer)
(coerce (loop for i upfrom 0 by 8 below (integer-length integer)
collect (code-char (ldb (byte 8 i) integer))) 'string))
100291759904362517251920937783274743691485481194069255743433035)
> The point is to give the impression that it's equally likely that a
> physician, programmer, attorney, etc. is a "she" as a "he."
Time to build this rule in MS Word. The wordcount summary would notify
authors of any bias, propose replacements and insert a dummy sentence if
the number of pronouns is odd to restore the oh-so-politically-desirable
balance. She would double-blink as the prison guard writing her report
on people not obeying the rule hits the rythm.
Robert
perhaps you thought of "hän" for he or she and "se" for it.
Tapio
>In English, most of the time, we use the masculine pronouns for neuter
>nouns.
In the states, we've been using "she" where once the standard was "he"
som years now. t raised some eyebrows in my dissertation back in '88,
but ultimately, nobody objected. Some prefer to alternate between the
two. The point is to give the impression that it's equally likely that a
physician, programmer, attorney, etc. is a "she" as a "he."
"When a programmer chooses a language, she would do well to select
common lisp." ;^)
Should we modify the LOOP macro to accept "he", "she", and "it"?
--
Kenneth P. Turvey <kt-...@SprocketShop.com>
--------------------------------------------
It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.
-- George Bernard Shaw
> I don't know what Robert had in mind, but there are languages such as
> Finnish, where the only distinction in pronouns is between
> animate/inanimate. The pronoun used for persons has only one form and
> you cannot distinguish between male and female.
> Finnish "Se" means he or she, "On" means it.
In principle correct, but you got the words wrong:
"Hän" -> he or she
"Se" -> it
("On" would be the verb "is".)
No, "Se" means it, "Hän" means he or she. (The character ä, in case you
can't see it properly, is an a with two dots.) "On" means (roughly)
"is", so "Hän on" means "He is" or "She is", depending on context.
But the point was correct - there are not two different words for he and
she as in most languages (well, most languages that I'm aware of...)
--
- Fredrik Sandstrom fre...@infa.abo.fi http://infa.abo.fi/~fredrik -
Computer Science at Abo Akademi University --
Thanks to all for giving all your opinions and feedbacks!
Robert Monfera wrote:
>
> Raffael Cavallaro wrote:
>
> > The point is to give the impression that it's equally likely that a
> > physician, programmer, attorney, etc. is a "she" as a "he."
>
I just started programming in lisp a few months ago, and I can tell you
my learning process. This may be of use for others who would like to
explore Lisp but haven't found a clear path.
I started with Lamkin's on line book to get a flavor for the language.
I simultaneously downloaded the Franz trial version for Linux and
windows, as well as the Linux and windows trials from Harlequin. You
can still get these from the Franz and Harlequin web sites.
Decided I loved the language, and that I could port a pretty
sophisticated C++ application that I've been working on for 2 years to
Lisp. Thought that it would make a great learning project.
Decided that Franz/Emacs Linux version was the most solid free product
for learning.( I have been C/C++ programming on Linux for years so it
was an easy choice.)
After finishing Lamkins' book, I started buying Lisp books in bulk!!
(There aren't all that many good ones, and a for few hundred dollars you
can get them all!!)
Started reading Winston's book, but stopped about mid-way, once I
found....
Touretzky's Common Lisp, A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation.
Finished that book, and read in its entirety. It is very good.
The Common Lisp Companion by Timothy D. Koschmann
This book is a GREAT primer... I think the best starter book!!
In order to convert my C++ program, which has 15,000 lines of code and
is highly object oriented, I needed more literature on CLOS. Thus,
I've read about halfway through Sonya Keene's CLOS book, which is
another great primer.
I've done a COMPLETE conversion of my c++ program. It has about 1000
lines of code, and is much better and more elegant than the C++ program.
This took only 3 weeks, after studying and playing with lisp for about a
month. So, it has 1/15th the lines of code, and took maybe 1/12th the
time to develop. It's speed is only slightly slower - not enough to
matter for this application. Machine cycles are cheap. Developer time is
not!! :)
There are a lot of wonderful features of Lisp for a C++ programmer -
here are a few:
The first jubilation occurred when I could finally say NO to templates.
Then I had an epiphany experience when I created methods which created
other methods at run-time. This feature eliminated MANY hacky lines of
C++ code!! And incremental compilation and Lisp's high degree of
interactivity makes developing a much more pleasurable experience.
I picked up Steele's Common Lisp 2nd Edition on Ebay (I'm buying another
one as well so I don't have to lug it home from work). This is a
necessity.
I got these used (and cheap!!), but they may be difficult to track
down. Check out Barnes & Nobles used book department or
www.abebooks.com for a great used book search.
My future plans:
Finish Keene's CLOS book.
I am now reading Norvig's Artificial Intelligence Programming:
Case Studies in Common Lisp, which I find to be very lucid.
I am the middle of Graham's Ansi Common Lisp Primer, and need to finish
that.
I would like a windowing system, and I don't want a proprietary one, so
I am going to start looking at CLIM.
---- Though I am uncertain about continuing to use Franz as a vehicle in
learning lisp. In order to get CLIM from Franz, I was quoted a price of
$3000.00 for their professional version for linux. They have a
"personal" windows edition for I think $695. But they don't have a
"personal" linux edition. I would gladly pay 695$ to hack around with
CLIM on linux, but it is hard to justify 3000.00 to play with some
graphics code. Maybe when I am a better Lisper, as I really dig Franz's
product.
If you are reading this Franz -- I'll give you $695 for a personal linux
version which includes CLIM just to learn about the product!!!
Thus I need to explore CMUCL which I think has CLIM. Any suggestions
for exploring CLIM ??....
Other books I have and want to read:
I have Kiczales' book - The Art of the Metaobject protocol , and
Paepcke's book, Object Oriented Programming, The CLOS Perspective, which
you can get from MIT out of print books.
Also Graham's other more advanced text, On Lisp.
Hope this helps....
Dave Linenberg
unfortunately afaik, CLIM is only available for acl, harlequin's lisp,
and mcl. ther is a free clim project (at cons.org), though their mailing
list seems to be not very active. you might want to give garnet a tryt
> ...
> Thus I need to explore CMUCL which I think has CLIM. Any suggestions
> for exploring CLIM ??....
no, CMUCL does not have CLIM. but you could use garnet
> ...
--
Hartmann Schaffer
It is better to fill your days with life than your life with days
> In article <882005$t82$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>,
> dlin...@my-deja.com writes:
> > ...
> > I would like a windowing system, and I don't want a proprietary one, so
> > I am going to start looking at CLIM.
>
> unfortunately afaik, CLIM is only available for acl, harlequin's lisp,
> and mcl.
and Genera and Open Genera.
Rainer Joswig, ISION Internet AG, Harburger Schlossstrasse 1,
21079 Hamburg, Germany, Tel: +49 40 77175 226
Email: rainer...@ision.de , WWW: http://www.ision.de/
> If you are reading this Franz -- I'll give you $695 for a personal linux
> version which includes CLIM just to learn about the product!!!
Here are the Xanalys' prices:
http://www.harlequin.com/products/st/lisp/purchase.shtml
Lisp Products Pricing
All prices are in US Dollars. Volume discounts are available.
UNIX Products Base Price Academic Price
Liquid Common Lisp $4,500 $2,250
LispWorks $4,500 $2,250
KnowledgeWorks $1,500 $750
CLIM 2.0 $1,150 $565
Harlequin CL ORB $1,500 $750
Transducer $1,500 $750
UNIX Runtimes $750 $375
Annual Support and Maintenance: 25% of Base Price.
Academic Support and Maintenance: First year free; subsequent years:
25% of Commercial Base Price
PC Products* Base Price
LWW or LWL Professional $799
LWW or LWL Professional Academic $699
LWW or LWL Enterprise $1,999
LWW or LWL Enterprise Runtimes $300
LWW or LWL Pro to Ent upgrade $1,499
LWW or LWL Support 5 Pack $600
LWW or LWL Support 10 Pack $1,100
LWW or LWL Support 20 Pack $2,000
* Our PC Products include:
- LispWorks for Windows (LWW) for Win 95, Win 98 and NT 4.0 running on Intel hardware
- LispWorks for Linux (LWL) for RedHat Linux 5.2 and 6.0
-------------------
The LispWorks Professional and Enterprise products for the PC
include CLIM. The LispWorks Professional product has royalty-free
delivery.
Rainer Joswig, ISION Internet AG, Harburger Schlossstraße 1,
if someone ever gets the really bad idea to translate Common Lisp to New
Norwegian (as opposed to Old Norse, not the real Norwegian), they will
have to cope with the disconcerting habit in that language of referring
to inanimate objects with "han" (he) and "hun" (she). try "she went to
see this movie. he was better than she expected." on for size.
#:Erik
Well, Turkish only has neutral pronouns and no pervasive use of articles
(they are neutral anyway). This should make it very simple. People find
it hard mostly because of the number of verb tenses (what's so unnatural
about having a past tense for hearsay?).
Why are we talking about this? Did somebody suggest a gender declartion
or something?
BM
Linguists to the rescue, isn't this more like the norm and English
is one of the few exceptions? German has both female, male and neutral
forms, IIRC French and Italian have female and male. About the only
language I know (well, my knowledge is quite limited) with only
one form would be English...
It gets interesting when you consider the genders of objects in
different
language, e.g. in German "the moon" is "der Mond" (the moon's male),
while the Italian version would be "la luna" i.e. female...
Gee, I'm getting a little bit astray, not a big lisp context anymore.
Well, maybe this just shows that the less syntax there is, the less
trouble you have when it comes to international use of the language.
...Michael...
> I picked up Steele's Common Lisp 2nd Edition on Ebay (I'm buying another
> one as well so I don't have to lug it home from work). This is a
> necessity.
I like CLTL2 very much, but from the fact that you say it's
"a necessity" I conjecture that you don't know about the
Common Lisp HyperSpec? This is an HTMLified version of the
ANSI standard, it's available for free, and it's *very*
good. Go to http://www.harlequin.com/ and have a poke around.
--
Gareth McCaughan Gareth.M...@pobox.com
sig under construction
I believe you can get CLTL2 on the web as well. You can also get the non
hyperspec format of the standard - and print the whole thing out - in
postscript format, if you'd like. It is BIG.. or pay around 500$ from
the standards place.
I just like book -paper/print- formats better in general for this type
of information.
well, real Norwegian doesn't suffer from this confusion of inanimate with
animate objects, and usually restricts "he" and "she" to human beings.
inanimate objects and in most circumstances also animals are referenced
with our equivalents of "it", which may be "den" (male/female gender) or
"det" (neuter gender). incidentally, furriners get this wrong all the
time, so it is clearly complex.
#:Erik
> Hope this helps....
> Dave Linenberg
>
> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.
>
Yeah, this was a really good post for me, since I'm so new to lisp and
programming in general I got a lot of good info. here, thanks!
--
. . . H . . .
This is very common in other languages as well. German, Icelandic and most
(all?) Slavonic and Romanic (sp?) languages behave just like New Norwegian
in this respect.
Tord
I second this opinion !!!
Because of P Graham - I am still a beginner ( more than a year after buying
his book)!!!
> Because of P Graham - I am still a beginner ( more than a year after buying
> his book)!!!
That is just about the dumbest comment I've seen on c.l.l all month,
and February has been a banner month for idiocy.
"Because of P Graham - I am still a beginner"
--
Craig Brozefsky <cr...@red-bean.com>
Free Scheme/Lisp Software http://www.red-bean.com/~craig
"Hiding like thieves in the night from life, illusions of
oasis making you look twice. -- Mos Def and Talib Kweli