Popped into the local Tech. bookstore today to look for something
non-lisp. But, as I tend to do, I went over to the Lisp section
anyway, just to see how small it had become.
To my surprise I found TWO (count 'em) copies of a brand new Lisp book.
It's so new that the Copyright is 1998 (so I guess it's copyable for
another few months?). It was squeezed in between the Delphi tomes and
the VB tomes. (Java has it's own bookshelf at this store.)
The Book:
Object-Oriented Common Lisp
By Stephen Slade
Copyright 1998
Prentice Hall
ISBN 0-13-605940-6
It's 774 pages, white with a red maze on the cover.
There's an Appendix titled "Internet Resources", and the URL:
http://www.prenhall.com/divisions/ptr/
I haven't checked this page yet, personally.
I find it interesting the book embraces the 'net, yet a book
announcement hasn't managed to filter its way down to c.l.l yet.
It is NOT a purely CLOS book. It is a CL book.
It looks pretty good. It's a modern Lisp book, similiar to "ANSI Common
Lisp" by Graham (ACL). ACL is more terse I think, but its also shorter.
By modern I mean it talks about CL as a general programming language,
and not just an AI language.
At a glance it seems to work more with the environment of CL than ACL
does, as well as going into CL. This will be nice for me, as I don't
leverage the environment hardly at all. ACL has a better concise CL
reference in it, though.
Two quick excerpts:
<QUOTE>
Section 1.2 - The Religion of LISP
Many LISP programmers can be classified as true believers. For them,
LISP embodies computational truth, light, and revelation. LISP is a
manifestation of divine will. Other programming languages, which may
share some of the attributes of LISP, fail to satisfy the broad tenets
of programming purity found in LISP. Advocates of other languages are
heretics.
<\QUOTE>
I read that and, immediately, our own lovable Erik came to mind.
<QUOTE>
Chapter 2
A Tutorial Introduction
Lisp is primarily an interpreted language.
<\QUOTE>
I read THAT, and also thought of Erik 8-).
It does get better, but one could hope that it could have started,
well, differently.
It was US$48 here in California. I reckon Amazon.com might have it. I
don't know whether there is much value for the truly experienced Lisper
in this book. But it is definately a must for the novice and
intermediate user from what I can glean from it in an intensive
browsing. I think everyone should at least browse it.
Also, the author seems to quote Alan Perlis quite a bit.
One thing that is interesting to me, is that in the past couple of
years we've had three good books on CL. Plus a re-release of SICP, and
the 'Little Schemers'. And then, out of the blue, we get an
announcement of yet ANOTHER commercial CL environment.
Purty durn sneaky for a dead language, eh?
--
Will Hartung - Rancho Santa Margarita. It's a dry heat. ······@netcom.com
1990 VFR750 - VFR=Very Red "Ho, HaHa, Dodge, Parry, Spin, HA! THRUST!"
1993 Explorer - Cage? Hell, it's a prison. -D. Duck
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From: ······@netcom.com (Will Hartung)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Date: Mon, 8 Sep 1997 02:42:53 GMT
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Popped into the local Tech. bookstore today to look for something
non-lisp. But, as I tend to do, I went over to the Lisp section
anyway, just to see how small it had become.
To my surprise I found TWO (count 'em) copies of a brand new Lisp book.
It's so new that the Copyright is 1998 (so I guess it's copyable for
another few months?). It was squeezed in between the Delphi tomes and
the VB tomes. (Java has it's own bookshelf at this store.)
The Book:
Object-Oriented Common Lisp
By Stephen Slade
Copyright 1998
Prentice Hall
ISBN 0-13-605940-6
... much deleted.
I saw the book myself at Cody's a couple of weeks ago. I was pleased
to see a new book about CL coming out. Though it is a "good thing", I
must say that the book seems a little "old fashioned" (apart from the
initial comment). Lots of code devoted to explain Lists and Conses
and a little less explaining how to write 'print-object' methods.
Overall a welcome entry, but not yet the "Common Lisp in a Nutshell"
that I was hoping for.
Cheers
--
Marco Antoniotti
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