I'm looking to start learning LISP and am operating on a grad-student
stipend, hence I only want to purchase one book for the time being. I'm
considering either ANSI Common LISP by Paul Graham or Peter Seibel's
Practical Common LISP. If anyone has suggestions (preferably
accompanied by reasons) as to which book I should buy, please let me
know. My main interest is currently to explore the language, and
probably write a few small applications, not to do any serious software
engineering, if that makes a difference... I have experience with
Python, Java, C++, and PERL (in order of experience), in case that may
be of any import...
Thanks For Any Help,
Phil
Hey, Phil!
Have you been to Paul Graham's website? If not, you should, for at
least the background info -- and the link to the free copy of his other
book... Peter's stuff is great too, but I (personally) is biased
towards Graham's texts. And yes, they ARE funny! ;-)
Paul B.
phil.bachman wrote:
> I'm looking to start learning LISP and am operating on a grad-student
> stipend
Successful Lisp
http://psg.com/~dlamkins/sl/cover.html
The 12 lessons in chapter 3 are a good introduction.
Practical Common Lisp
http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/
CLtL2
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Groups/AI/html/cltl/cltl2.html
Some of the online pages are missing,
but the html download is complete.
--
My name is dsb, and I'm at prairienet, which is an O-R-G.
Dan Bensen wrote:
> phil.bachman wrote:
> > I'm looking to start learning LISP and am operating on a grad-student
> > stipend
>
> Successful Lisp
> http://psg.com/~dlamkins/sl/cover.html
> The 12 lessons in chapter 3 are a good introduction.
>
> Practical Common Lisp
> http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/
>
> CLtL2
> http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Groups/AI/html/cltl/cltl2.html
> Some of the online pages are missing,
> but the html download is complete.
>
> --
> My name is dsb, and I'm at prairienet, which is an O-R-G.
Hey, thank for all the help. I've already been through a decent portion
of Successful LISP (it was the first "comprehensive" tutorial/book I
found online), and have started reading/digesting Practical Common
LISP. I think I'll pick up Paul Graham's book, just so I can spend a
bit of time away from my computer... I'm looking forward to having some
new angles from which to attack any future problems.
Phil
> Hey, thank for all the help. I've already been through a decent portion
> of Successful LISP (it was the first "comprehensive" tutorial/book I
> found online), and have started reading/digesting Practical Common
> LISP. I think I'll pick up Paul Graham's book, just so I can spend a
> bit of time away from my computer... I'm looking forward to having some
> new angles from which to attack any future problems.
>
> Phil
Hi Phil,
there is also a very nice book written by Stuart C. Shapiro called
COMMON LISP: An Interactive Approach
It is freely available online
(http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~shapiro/Commonlisp/), specially helpful
with the concept of packages and displays the iterative approach
programming CL. You build some larger projects while doing all the
excercises in the book (some come with solutions so you won't get lost
on your journey). I enjoyed it (well, not all the way through yet :-)
Take a look at it, and don't miss Grahams ANSI Common Lisp, and Seibels
PCL, each has a different approach and the combination will make the
game.
Actually I'm jumping around between all those progressing ~slowly~ on
my own nightly-after-work-party.
Ah, and always keep your CLHS at hands, its all in there - somewhere.
Cheers, Christoph
"phil.bachman" <············@gmail.com> writes:
> I'm looking to start learning LISP and am operating on a grad-student
> stipend, hence I only want to purchase one book for the time being. I'm
> considering either ANSI Common LISP by Paul Graham or Peter Seibel's
> Practical Common LISP. If anyone has suggestions (preferably
> accompanied by reasons) as to which book I should buy, please let me
> know. My main interest is currently to explore the language, and
> probably write a few small applications, not to do any serious software
> engineering, if that makes a difference... I have experience with
> Python, Java, C++, and PERL (in order of experience), in case that may
> be of any import...
Practical Common Lisp is available online for free. Given your cost
constraints, I would start with that.
phil.bachman wrote:
> I'm looking to start learning LISP and am operating on a grad-student
> stipend, hence I only want to purchase one book for the time being. I'm
> considering either ANSI Common LISP by Paul Graham or Peter Seibel's
> Practical Common LISP. If anyone has suggestions (preferably
> accompanied by reasons) as to which book I should buy, please let me
> know. My main interest is currently to explore the language, and
> probably write a few small applications, not to do any serious software
> engineering, if that makes a difference... I have experience with
> Python, Java, C++, and PERL (in order of experience), in case that may
> be of any import...
>
> Thanks For Any Help,
> Phil
Previews:
http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/
http://paulgraham.com/booklinks.html
D Herring wrote:
> phil.bachman wrote:
>
>> I'm looking to start learning LISP and am operating on a grad-student
>> stipend, hence I only want to purchase one book for the time being. I'm
>> considering either ANSI Common LISP by Paul Graham or Peter Seibel's
>> Practical Common LISP. If anyone has suggestions (preferably
>> accompanied by reasons) as to which book I should buy, please let me
>> know. My main interest is currently to explore the language,
Then I would say Graham, since it is denser and PCL goes more into
practical stuff which spreads out the core stuff. But you cannot go
wrong with either.
kt
--
Cells: http://common-lisp.net/project/cells/
"I'll say I'm losing my grip, and it feels terrific."
-- Smiling husband to scowling wife, New Yorker cartoon
phil.bachman wrote:
> I'm looking to start learning LISP and am operating on a grad-student
> stipend, hence I only want to purchase one book for the time being.
If you are only going to purchase one book, I would make it Paradigms
of Artificial Intelligence Programming by Peter Norvig. Don't let the
"Artificial Intelligence" part fool you, it is by far and away the best
book about programming in general (and lisp in particular) I have ever
read. The first 3 chapters present a better introduction to lisp in 100
pages than Graham's entire book (IMHO, of course; YMMV). The two
chapters on lisp efficiency issues are alone worth the price of the
book.
Just my $0.02
If you are going to actually buy the book then rather buy the book from
the author who is making a free online version available. Just my
opinion of course.