From: Cy Shuster
Subject: [Q] Book about good styles, common idioms?
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1993 00:33:15 +0000
Message-ID: <1993Nov12.003315.23133@ccmail.com>

Can someone recommend an intermediate book addressed to the
experienced programmer but novice LISP user that suggests
good styles to use and common idioms? An example I like (for
C++) is James Coplien's "Advanced C++ Programming Styles and
Idioms".

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From: Michael Travers
Subject: Re: [Q] Book about good styles, common idioms?
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 07:04:14 +0000
Message-ID: <MT.93Nov14020414@media-lab.media.mit.edu>

In article <······················@ccmail.com> Cy Shuster <········@ccmail.com> writes:

   Can someone recommend an intermediate book addressed to the
   experienced programmer but novice LISP user that suggests
   good styles to use and common idioms? An example I like (for
   C++) is James Coplien's "Advanced C++ Programming Styles and
   Idioms".

A good pair:

_On Lisp: Advanced Techniques for Common Lisp_, by Paul Grahm,
  Prentice Hall, 1994 (but it's out now).

_Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in
  Common Lisp_, Peter Norvig, Morgan-Kaufmann, 1992.

They are complimentary: the first one is explictly not concerned with
AI issues, focusing instead on exploiting the expressiveness of Lisp
(with an emphasis on macros, which isn't covered well in any other
book that I know of).  The Norvig book is mostly about AI techniques
but also has some chapters on general Lisp issues.

Both books make their code examples available via anonymous FTP, a
practice to be applauded.

--

Michael Travers / MIT Media Lab / ··@media-lab.media.mit.edu