From: John S. Adams
Subject: Autolisp user wants to know about Lisp
Date: 
Message-ID: <q8bx6.412$S.254491@news4.mco>
  Hello. I have been writing simple (to you guys) programs in autolisp (in
AutoCad)
for about 10 years, and really enjoy it.

  I know no other programming language. Can anyone give me any advice
on what to look at in the LISP world, if I want to, say, manipulate text
files,
do sorting of strings, etc. (All outside of Autocad. I use the "Boxer99"
text editor).

  What is the next step for a person like me, who may want to enter the REAL
lisp world?

  Should I get a LISP interpreter of some sort? AutoCad has a built-in
interpreter
so I've never had to find one before. Any advice will be much appreciated.


Steve Adams
Win98

From: Kent M Pitman
Subject: Re: Autolisp user wants to know about Lisp
Date: 
Message-ID: <sfwn1a27hz6.fsf@world.std.com>
"John S. Adams" <········@bellsouth.net> writes:

> Hello. I have been writing simple (to you guys) programs in autolisp
> (in AutoCad) for about 10 years, and really enjoy it.

Hi.  Welcome.
 
> I know no other programming language. Can anyone give me any advice
> on what to look at in the LISP world,

www.alu.org

> if I want to, say, manipulate text files, do sorting of strings,
> etc. (All outside of Autocad. I use the "Boxer99" text editor).
 
Something like this might give you an idea of the look and power 
that CL offers you.  I didn't test it, but I think it will probably
work:

(defun sort-file-lines (input-file output-file)
  (with-open-file (instream input-file :direction :input)
    (with-open-file (outstream output-file :direction :output)
      (dolist (line (sort (loop for line = (read-line instream nil nil)
                                while line
                                collect line)
                          #'string-lessp))
        (write-line line outstream)))))

> What is the next step for a person like me, who may want to enter the REAL
> lisp world?

Get a Common Lisp to play with.  There are a number of free ones.
Which is right for you may depend on your platform and other factors,
such as GUI.
> 
> Should I get a LISP interpreter of some sort?

Absolutely.  Though we don't call them interpreters.  It makes them
sound slow.  It's a common myth about Lisp that it's slow, and the use of
this term in casual conversation reinforces that false impression many
people have.  The first step in entering the community is understanding 
it well enough to get past some of the confusions/myths, and to help us
do the same with others.

Lisp often comes with an interpreter, for interactive use in debugging
(though implementations exist that use a compiler even for interactive
use, and you'd never know the difference).  Almost all implementations
have a compiler somewhere in them; certainly all *commercial*
implementations do.  And one normally compiles for any production use.
The language is defined the same whether intepreted or compiled,
though.

In order to be neutral about whether you're working with something
interpreted or compiled, just call the thing you're looking for a
"lisp implementation", or "lisp image", or "lisp system" ... or just
"a lisp".  .

> AutoCad has a built-in interpreter so I've never had to find one
> before. Any advice will be much appreciated.

Check out the ALU web site.  If you have problems with one, try another.
If you can't figure things out, ask here.
From: John S. Adams
Subject: Re: Autolisp user wants to know about Lisp
Date: 
Message-ID: <Xqcx6.10$je.25986@news1.mco>
Thank you very much.

Steve
From: Reini Urban
Subject: Re: Autolisp user wants to know about Lisp
Date: 
Message-ID: <3ac8bd36.27435550@judy>
John S. Adams wrote:
>  What is the next step for a person like me, who may want to enter the REAL
>lisp world?

http://xarch.tu-graz.ac.at/autocad/lisp/ esp. the corman lisp arx
-- 
Reini Urban
http://xarch.tu-graz.ac.at/autocad/news/faq/autolisp.html
From: Andrew K. Wolven
Subject: Re: Autolisp user wants to know about Lisp
Date: 
Message-ID: <3ACCBD2E.B057DB40@redfernlane.org>
"John S. Adams" wrote:

>   Hello. I have been writing simple (to you guys) programs in autolisp (in
> AutoCad)
> for about 10 years, and really enjoy it.
>
>   I know no other programming language. Can anyone give me any advice
> on what to look at in the LISP world, if I want to, say, manipulate text
> files,
> do sorting of strings, etc. (All outside of Autocad. I use the "Boxer99"
> text editor).
>
>   What is the next step for a person like me, who may want to enter the REAL
> lisp world?

Are you wanting to do cad or just lisp in general?

>
>
>   Should I get a LISP interpreter of some sort? AutoCad has a built-in
> interpreter
> so I've never had to find one before. Any advice will be much appreciated.
>
> Steve Adams
> Win98