I am familiar with Scheme, and am now looking to learn CL. I happen to
have a copy of an older edition of "Lisp" by Winston and Horn which uses
MACLISP instead of CL. It looks like a well written book, but I'm
wondering if the differences between MACLISP and CL will cause lots of
trouble as I work my way through the book and try to work out exercises
on a CL compiler. The FAQ notes some of the differences between the
dialects of Lisp, but I really have little idea of how different the
languages are. Should I use the book I have, or shell out a little money
so I don't have to worry about the differences between MACLISP and CL?
Monica
In article <··········@ns.compumedia.com> ······@compumedia.com (Monica Stewart) writes:
>I am familiar with Scheme, and am now looking to learn CL. I happen to
>have a copy of an older edition of "Lisp" by Winston and Horn which uses
>MACLISP instead of CL. It looks like a well written book, but I'm
>wondering if the differences between MACLISP and CL will cause lots of
>trouble as I work my way through the book and try to work out exercises
>on a CL compiler.
There are quite a few differences between MacLisp and Common Lisp.
However, I suspect that about 90% of the examples in your book will work
unchanged in Common Lisp. One area that I know is affected is the examples
of functional arguments accessing dynamic variables from the calling
function.
Still, I suggest you get the newer book. Not only does it use a current
Lisp dialect, but it has also been updated in other ways.
--
Barry Margolin
BBN Planet Corporation, Cambridge, MA
······@bbnplanet.com
Thanks for all of you with your responses by email and otherwise. For
those of you wondering, the general reaction seems to be that Common Lisp
is notably different than Maclisp, and CL is a better language anyway.
Why learn dead languages anyway?
Monica