From: Morgan Rodwell
Subject: REQ: recommendations on Lisp compiler and books
Date: 
Message-ID: <36C6305F.E1AB393@cadvision.com>
Hi,

I am an amateur programmer looking into learning Common Lisp because it
looks extremely powerful.

1. Which CL tool should I use?  Allegro CL, LispWorks, ???

2. Is there a good introductory book on Lisp that explains some of the
basics of what Lisp can do without instantly going into S-expressions
and recursion.  Something that starts with "this is how to start a lisp
program"?

Thanks

Morgan Rodwell
FBN Software
From: Johan Kullstam
Subject: Re: REQ: recommendations on Lisp compiler and books
Date: 
Message-ID: <m2emnsewd6.fsf@sophia.axel.nom>
Morgan Rodwell <·······@cadvision.com> writes:

> Hi,
> 
> I am an amateur programmer looking into learning Common Lisp because it
> looks extremely powerful.

i am in the same boat you are.  i am finding that i actually like lisp
a lot.  however, i am still undoing C/C++/fortran braindamage and find
lisp baffling at times.  with a some more experience i hope this gets
better.

> 1. Which CL tool should I use?  Allegro CL, LispWorks, ???

i am using allegro CL from franz.  they have a nice `trial' version
which works great in linux.  (how much does the full version cost
anyway?)

> 2. Is there a good introductory book on Lisp that explains some of the
> basics of what Lisp can do without instantly going into S-expressions
> and recursion.  Something that starts with "this is how to start a lisp
> program"?

hmm.  this is hard to find since every system will have peculurarities
unto themselves.  for general lisp stuff, paul graham has
_ansi_common_lisp_ and _on_lisp_, both of which are excellent.

i use emacs to drive a lisp listener.  for some handy instructions on
getting started try:

<URL:http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~howe/handouts/lisp-and-emacs.html>

i was hopelessly lost until i found this page.  hope it helps you too.

-- 
Johan Kullstam [········@ne.mediaone.net] Don't Fear the Penguin!