I reccommend an older book called LISP 3rd edition, by H. Winston.
> What is a good book to learn Lisp. I am not very good in programming
> and would like a book which is simple to understand with many
> examples. The book should cover the topics from beginner to advance
> level.
You won't find a book that big. Get the basics, then get another book.
ANSI Common Lisp & On Lisp by Graham are also good.
Sam Griffith Jr.
·········@aol.com
From: Richard Pitre
Subject: Re: What book I should by to learn Lisp?
Date:
Message-ID: <4ffnfv$825@ra.nrl.navy.mil>
In article <········································@icogsci1.ucsd.edu> Coolray
<········@icogsci1.ucsd.edu> writes:
> I reccommend an older book called LISP 3rd edition, by H. Winston.
>
> > What is a good book to learn Lisp. I am not very good in programming
> > and would like a book which is simple to understand with many
> > examples. The book should cover the topics from beginner to advance
> > level.
> You won't find a book that big. Get the basics, then get another book.
The Little Lisper.
richard
From: Richard Pitre
Subject: Re: What book I should by to learn Lisp?
Date:
Message-ID: <4ffoga$964@ra.nrl.navy.mil>
In article <········································@icogsci1.ucsd.edu> Coolray
<········@icogsci1.ucsd.edu> writes:
> I reccommend an older book called LISP 3rd edition, by H. Winston.
>
> > What is a good book to learn Lisp. I am not very good in programming
> > and would like a book which is simple to understand with many
> > examples. The book should cover the topics from beginner to advance
> > level.
> You won't find a book that big. Get the basics, then get another book.
PS
There are no advanced topics in Lisp per se(and this is a very good thing).
There are advanced styles but most people develope their own in time.
There are however many advanced discussions of style, algorithms, "efficiency",
objects, AI, pattern matching etc. A reasonably entertaining and "advanced"
book after "The Little Lisper" is "On Lisp". There is another nice book used at
some educational institutions for teaching computer science using the Scheme
dialect. The authors are Abel and Sussman and I can't grep the title at the
moment. Send me mail if you can't find it. You can also keep Steel's reference
around just so that you will have the feeling that you could look up the
definition of something but you will find that learning Lispese is harder than
learning Lisp. A more useful reference is "Common Lisp the Reference" by Franz
Inc. Its almost written in English and it attempts to document the mountain of
functions that give Lisp its reputation for being a large language when in fact
it is the smallest language that I know. Viva Scheme.
richard
I have a list of Lisp texts and references on my "Intro to Common
Lisp" WWW page: http://www.apl.jhu.edu/~hall/lisp.html.
I need to update it to include Graham's _ANSI Common Lisp_, now that I
have a copy. Other than that, it mentions most of my personal
favorites in various categories.
- Marty
(proclaim '(inline skates))
·····@n5160d.nrl.navy.mil (Richard Pitre) wrote:
>> > What is a good book to learn Lisp. I am not very good in programming
>> > and would like a book which is simple to understand with many
>> > examples. The book should cover the topics from beginner to advance
>> > level.
>There is another nice book used at
>some educational institutions for teaching computer science using the Scheme
>dialect. The authors are Abel and Sussman and I can't grep the title at the
>moment.
Abelson and Sussman, _Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs_,
McGraw-Hill and MIT Press. This is a very fine book, but it's not
easy; it gets to the deep topics from the beginning.
>You can also keep Steel's reference
>around...
Guy Steele, _Common Lisp: The Language_, 2nd ed. (commonly called
CLtL2), Digital Press. This is **not** a book to learn Lisp from, but it
is a great reference.
From: Richard Pitre
Subject: Re: What book I should by to learn Lisp?
Date:
Message-ID: <4g06ds$7vi@ra.nrl.navy.mil>
In article <··········@news.cis.okstate.edu> Mark McConnell
<·······@math.okstate.edu> writes:
> ·····@n5160d.nrl.navy.mil (Richard Pitre) wrote:
>
> >> > What is a good book to learn Lisp. I am not very good in programming
> >> > and would like a book which is simple to understand with many
> >> > examples. The book should cover the topics from beginner to advance
> >> > level.
>
> >There is another nice book used at
> >some educational institutions for teaching computer science using the Scheme
> >dialect. The authors are Abel and Sussman and I can't grep the title at the
> >moment.
>
Try it. It might not prove difficult for you even though Mr. McConnell might
have had a difficult time with it. He clearly has trouble understanding the
notion of context.
> Abelson and Sussman, _Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs_,
> McGraw-Hill and MIT Press. This is a very fine book, but it's not
> easy; it gets to the deep topics from the beginning.
>
> >You can also keep Steel's reference
> >around...
>
> Guy Steele, _Common Lisp: The Language_, 2nd ed. (commonly called
> CLtL2), Digital Press. This is **not** a book to learn Lisp from, but it
> is a great reference.
I have been teaching myself CL with Horn and Winstons "Lisp 3rd edition"
This book is top 3 out of many language books i have used.
--
"The Empire Never Ended"-PKD
On Sat, 17 Feb 1996, hatta wrote:
> I have been teaching myself CL with Horn and Winstons "Lisp 3rd edition"
> This book is top 3 out of many language books i have used.
>
> --
> "The Empire Never Ended"-PKD
I really value this book as well.
From: ···········@bridge.bst.bls.com
Subject: Re: What book I should by to learn Lisp?
Date:
Message-ID: <4ga8db$9h@atglab10.atglab.bls.com>
In article <······················@lcy-pm0-ip12.halcyon.com>,
<·····@halcyon.com> writes:
> I have been teaching myself CL with Horn and Winstons "Lisp 3rd edition"
> This book is top 3 out of many language books i have used.
>
I suggest Friedman and Felleisen "The Little Lisper", MIT Press, 1987, ISBN
0-262-56038-0. Starts simply and moves into more complex topics. Excellent on
recursion, and is good preparation for more "difficult" books such as Abelson
and Sussman.
Also, you might want to check out two books by Paul Graham, both published by
Prentice-Hall:
"ANSI Common Lisp", 1995, ISBN 0-13-370875-6
"On Lisp: Advanced Techniques for Common Lisp", 1994, ISBN 0-13-030552-9
The second one gets quite complicated, and might be a bit advanced, but the two
together are very comprehensive.
For a fairly complete bibliography of intro books, check out the Lisp FAQ:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Web/Groups/AI/html/faqs/lang/lisp/top.html
···········@bridge.bst.bls.com wrote:
> I suggest Friedman and Felleisen "The Little Lisper", MIT Press,
> 1987, ISBN 0-262-56038-0.
This book has been updated, and has a sequel as well, now. You may
wish to look at
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~matthias/tls.html The Little Schemer
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~matthias/tss.html The Seasoned Schemer
Between them, the volumes cover pretty much the entire language (of
Scheme, which includes continuations).
'shriram