On Jan 30, 2:07 pm, gavino <·········@gmail.com> wrote:
> Is this a good book for beginners?
> anyone?
This is good - http://psg.com/~dlamkins/sl/contents.html
>>>>> "gavino" == gavino <·········@gmail.com> writes:
gavino> Is this a good book for beginners?
I used this book to learn a lot of what I know about Lisp. Might be a
bit out-dated, but it was useful to me.
Ray
On Jan 30, 2:07 pm, gavino <·········@gmail.com> wrote:
> Is this a good book for beginners?
> anyone?
Gavino:
Lisp 3rd edition by Winston and Horn was published in 1989 and is pre-
CLtL2, so it is dated in some respects.
The book is organised into 3 parts. Part one is excellent for
beginners, presenting an abundance of clearly written examples
designed to give you lots of experience in up close and personal
interactive sessions with the interpreter.
I felt that the chapters in Part two (on macros, special variables,
arrays and so on) were underdeveloped, but this might be only in
comparison with the treatment in Part one, and too much to expect for
an introductory text.
Part Three introduces a step change in difficulty. Here, the material,
which is substantial, involves Artificial Intelligence application
examples requiring a degree of facility with Lisp, together with
certain analytical skills - and may be better showcased in the
classroom.
I used this book to learn Lisp (along with Robert Wilensky's Common
LispCraft) and would recommend it highly for anyone interested in
adventure.
agt
gavino <·········@gmail.com> writes:
> Is this a good book for beginners?
Well, it's not a bad book, I liked it when I used it myself more than
20 years ago, but I thought it was a bit outdated when I taught an
introductory course in lisp 15 years ago...
--
(espen)
On Jan 30, 11:07 am, gavino <·········@gmail.com> wrote:
> Is this a good book for beginners?
> anyone?
IMHO: not any more. I picked up this book to start last spring
and read most of it but it did not sync well with what i was
reading about the trials of computational linguistics in the 90s.
and also i think it was too dated for the examples.
I would not start with anything older than 1994 or so.
unless you have an old computer with an old lisp handy.
actually my reccomendation for a book for beginners is an
ancient mac powerbook together with copies of loving lisp by
mark watson and on lisp by paul graham and the xlisp2.1g and
powerlisp2 for macos. both pretty much cover steele and one
actually comes with a copy. that is how i get my studying done.
too much complications and distractions in the newer operating
systems and compilers. also all this stuff is free except for
the computer which costs you maybe $50 or $100 and the time
to set it up.
well lets say you are not a complete beginnner. i had some
administrative background and some linux. also damaged by
learning many imperative languages. just starting to get over
that. Graham helps (I am only on page 100).