Hello,
I've climbed the first 2 steps of the 1000 steps ladder. I stopped
reading (successful lisp, paip, pcl) and just started to code in order
to learn (step one for me). Surprisingly the code works very nice (only
3 efficiency warnings - step two for me ;).
But very often if i read cll or #lisp, I get confused by terms you gurus
use, which are obvious - once you know them: e.g. s-exp. Everybody uses
it all the time, but I did not find a definition what s-exp is standing
for as an apprevation. I knew that it must have been an obvious meaning,
so I was anxious to ask this on #lisp, but after a while I did and
luckily i was not ignored by everyone because of this question.
I understand that this kind of question from a non
computer-science-student is wasting time to genius minds, but maybe one
of you can direct me to a glossary of lisp terms (maybe in another book)?
Thanks,
Bernd
P.S: I do not mind buying & continuing reading books, but for now I have
to finish enhancements of the first version (my boss liked the
application). It would be nice to have an index to look up those terms
you guys are using all the time.
Bernd Schmitt wrote:
> P.S: I do not mind buying & continuing reading books, but for now I have
> to finish enhancements of the first version (my boss liked the
> application). It would be nice to have an index to look up those terms
> you guys are using all the time.
The HyperSpec has a nice glossary:
http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/26_a.htm
It's a good idea to have the HyperSpec available as a reference anyway.
Take some time to get yourself acquainted with the material that is
available in it. It is a very useful reference, especially when you know
how it is structured.
Pascal
--
My website: http://p-cos.net
Common Lisp Document Repository: http://cdr.eurolisp.org
Closer to MOP & ContextL: http://common-lisp.net/project/closer/
In article <························@news.freenet.de>,
Bernd Schmitt <··················@gmx.net> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I've climbed the first 2 steps of the 1000 steps ladder. I stopped
> reading (successful lisp, paip, pcl) and just started to code in order
> to learn (step one for me). Surprisingly the code works very nice (only
> 3 efficiency warnings - step two for me ;).
> But very often if i read cll or #lisp, I get confused by terms you gurus
> use, which are obvious - once you know them: e.g. s-exp. Everybody uses
> it all the time, but I did not find a definition what s-exp is standing
> for as an apprevation. I knew that it must have been an obvious meaning,
> so I was anxious to ask this on #lisp, but after a while I did and
> luckily i was not ignored by everyone because of this question.
> I understand that this kind of question from a non
> computer-science-student is wasting time to genius minds, but maybe one
> of you can direct me to a glossary of lisp terms (maybe in another book)?
>
> Thanks,
> Bernd
>
>
>
>
> P.S: I do not mind buying & continuing reading books, but for now I have
> to finish enhancements of the first version (my boss liked the
> application). It would be nice to have an index to look up those terms
> you guys are using all the time.
There was a Lisp FAQ some years ago.
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/lisp-faq/
Some people were interested in a new one.
http://www.lispniks.com/faq/
--
http://lispm.dyndns.org
Bernd Schmitt wrote:
> But very often if i read cll or #lisp, I get confused by terms you gurus
> use, which are obvious - once you know them: e.g. s-exp. Everybody uses
> it all the time, but I did not find a definition what s-exp is standing
> for as an apprevation.
Most of the time search engines, like Google, helps with finding a
definition. The 4th Google result is this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-expression
--
Frank Buss, ··@frank-buss.de
http://www.frank-buss.de, http://www.it4-systems.de
(message (Hello 'Bernd)
(you :wrote :on '(Fri, 22 Jun 2007 22:05:39 +0200))
(
BS> gurus use, which are obvious - once you know them: e.g. s-exp.
BS> Everybody uses it all the time, but I did not find a definition what
BS> s-exp is standing for as an apprevation.
it means s-expression, or symbolic expression.
they are the base of Lisp, you can find the first Lisp paper:
"Recursive Functions of Symbolic Expressions and Their Computation by
Machine, Part I"
http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/recursive/recursive.html
so symbolic expression is a notation for LISP code and data, as defined
there.
you can also find M-expressions there -- that is more usual notation for
function application, like car[list]. author thought that it's better to
write code in usual form, using S-expressions only as internal
representation (he have defined rules how to convert M-expressions into
S-expressions).
but soon people have found that there's no need in M-expressions, as it's
easy to write code as S-expressions :)
)
(With-best-regards '(Alex Mizrahi) :aka 'killer_storm)
"I am everything you want and I am everything you need")