rauscher@remus.rutgers.edu (Rich Rauscher) (11/02/90)
Hi. Could anybody recommend a good book for learning common lisp?
Please email replies because I don't read this group too often.
Thanks,
Rich Rauscher
----------------------
Center for Discrete Mathematics and Applied Computer Science
rauscher@rutgers.edu
rauscher@pisces.bitnet
{backbone site}!rutgers!rauscherdave@cs.fau.edu (David Edward Weiss) (11/08/90)
Try "Common LISP" by Guy Steele It's published by DEC, and it contains EVERYTHING on Common LISP I have a copy on loan, and it's very good. I cannot send e-mail to account yet, i have no priviledge for such. DaVE (Studying AI @FAU) -- Remember, Artificial Intelligence isn't about being smart, it's about APPEARING smart! -------------------------------------------------------------------
marti@mint.inf.ethz.ch (Robert Marti) (11/09/90)
In article <o740R2w163w@cs.fau.edu> dave@cs.fau.edu (David Edward Weiss) writes: >Try "Common LISP" by Guy Steele >It's published by DEC, and it contains EVERYTHING on Common LISP >I have a copy on loan, and it's very good. Aw, come on -- Common LISP, The Language by Guy Steele is certainly a good *manual* (see page xii of the first edition where Steele says "The organization and content of this *manual* were inspired in large part by the MacLISP Reference Manual by David A. Moon and others [...]"). Good books for *learning* Common LISP (see subject line!) might be Winston and Horn's 3rd edition of LISP (Addison Wesley, 1989) or Robert Wilensky's Common LISPcraft (Norton, 1986). (There are others of which I know even less than the above mentioned books ... ) Robert Marti | Phone: +41 1 254 72 60 Institut fur Informationssysteme | FAX: +41 1 262 39 73 ETH-Zentrum | E-Mail: marti@inf.ethz.ch CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland |
dave@cs.fau.edu (David Edward Weiss) (11/10/90)
Oh, sorry. I was just trying to help. :-)
Maybe I'll just LURK.
DaVE (the NeXT best thing)
--
"Artificial Intelligence isn't about being smart, just about
APPEARING smart"
-----------------------------------------------------------------gevins@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov (Jody Gevins) (11/10/90)
In article <14328@neptune.inf.ethz.ch> marti@mint.inf.ethz.ch (Robert Marti) writes: > >Good books for *learning* Common LISP (see subject line!) might be >Winston and Horn's 3rd edition of LISP (Addison Wesley, 1989) or >Robert Wilensky's Common LISPcraft (Norton, 1986). > Also, Essential LISP by J.R. Anderson, Corbett and Reiser. A presumably good tutor was written around this book. -Jody
rcbamhl@rwa.urc.tue.nl (Marc Heijligers) (11/10/90)
>Also, Essential LISP by J.R. Anderson, Corbett and Reiser. A >presumably good tutor was written around this book. It is, but it is not ecspecially about Common Lisp. It is more about how to use Lisp with iteration and recursion, and it really does a good job there. If you want a good tutorail on Common Lisp, you should try D. Tatar, Common Lisp a tutorial. It tells a lot about Common Lisp and its usage, and refers many times to Steele. A less good book is Milner, Common Lisp a tutorial. It groups instructions nice, but it is too simple. Winston and Horn is no good tutorial, however it contains nice examples. Hope this will help, Marc Heijligers marc_h@es.ele.tue.nl
anderson@sapir.cog.jhu.edu (Stephen R. Anderson) (11/11/90)
I found Wade Hennessey's "Common Lisp" quite good, though the book has a tendency to jump back and forth between elementary and rather more advanced issues with less warning than there should be. Steve Anderson
dsr@luke.mitre.org (Douglas S. Rand) (11/13/90)
Steele's book is a reference on Common LISP, not a tutorial or learning book. Try: Winston and Horn - LISP CommonLISPcraft - Wilenski Programming in Common LISP - Tatar I used the Winston book in a short course on LISP (taught that is) and found it pretty good. Sometimes the order isn't so good. I still think it's one of the best. You might also check out Touretski's book (I'm sorry I can't spell) which is probably been updated for Common LISP by now but wasn't a few years ago. A great short intro to LISP is the Little LISPer if you can find it. Douglas S. Rand Internet: <dsrand@mitre.org> Snail: MITRE, Burlington Road, Bedford, MA Disclaimer: MITRE might agree with me - then again... Amateur Radio: KC1KJ
marti@mint.inf.ethz.ch (Robert Marti) (11/15/90)
In article <126121@linus.mitre.org> dsr@luke.mitre.org (Douglas S. Rand) writes: >A great short intro to LISP is the Little LISPer if you can find it. Agreed, except that it uses Scheme instead of Common Lisp. The exact reference is: D.P.Friedman, M.Felleisen, The Little LISPer, Trade Edition, MIT Press, 1987. ISBN 0-262-56038-0 (pbk.) For Scheme, there are other *very* good introductory books around, namely Abelson+Sussman and Springer+Friedman. Robert Marti | Phone: +41 1 254 72 60 Institut fur Informationssysteme | FAX: +41 1 262 39 73 ETH-Zentrum | E-Mail: marti@inf.ethz.ch CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland |
jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton) (11/20/90)
1. Texts
There are a fair number of reasonably good Common Lisp texts.
In my opinion, though, the best place to begin is with Touretzky's
"Gentle Introduction":
David S. Touretzky.
{\em Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation}.
Benjamin/Cummings, 1990.
Despite the seeming implications of "gentle", it does cover some
fairly advanced topics. The explanations are clear and almost always
correct. (It may be wrong somewhere, but I don't know of any cases
off hand.)
However, the best Lisp text happens to use Scheme instead of Common Lisp:
Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman with Julie Sussman.
{\em Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs}.
The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1985.
It's well worth reading even if you plan to use Common Lisp rather
than Scheme; you should be able to do most of the exercises in
Common Lisp after you've read Touretzky (or some other CL text).
If you can't find Touretzky, or don't think it's quite what you want,
so other books to consider are:
Robert R. Kessler.
{\em Lisp, Objects, and Symbolic Programming}.
Scott, Foresman and Company, Glenview, Illinois, 1988.
Patrick Henry Winston and Berthold Klaus Paul Horn.
{\em LISP}.
Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, third edition, 1988.
Wade Hennesey's book is also pretty good, but I don't remember the
exact title.
2. References
If you plan to do some serious CL programming, you will eventually
need a copy of CLtL II:
Guy L. Steele Jr.
{\em Common LISP: The Language},
Digital Press, second edition, 1990.
Another reference, with entries in alphabetical order (and so perhaps
easier to find), is:
Franz Inc.
{\em Common Lisp: The Reference}.
Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1988.
The key advantage of CLtL II is that it will tell you what's
happened since 1984.
3. Advanced topics
Eugene Charniak, Christopher K. Riesbeck, Drew V. McDermott,
James R. Meehan.
{\em Artificial Intelligence Programming}.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, New Jersey,
second edition, 1987.
Sonya E. Keene.
{\em Object-Oriented Programming in Common Lisp: A Programmer's
Guide to CLOS}.
Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1989.
Molly M. Miller and Eric Benson
{\em Lisp Style & Design}
Digital Press, 1990.
Charniak et al discuss AI programming techniques. Drawbacks: some of
their examples are harder to follow that they ought to be, and their
publisher didn't have a good font for Lisp code (it uses upper case
dot matrix!).
Keene is a good introduction to CLOS, the Common Lisp Object System.
It has enough reference material for most purposes and also gives some
good advice on how CLOS should be used. It's main drawback is that
the examples tend to be small and tend to concern systems programming.
But it is the best book about CLOS available. Well, ok, maybe it's
the only book. But it's (much) better than the CLOS sections of
books that have such sections. Get it if you're going to use CLOS.
Miller and Benson is aimed at helping you to become a better Lisp
programmer. So far as I know, it is the only CL book that directly
addresses the problem of writing large programs (which we might call
"macrostyle"), but it is also good on "microstyle".
Jeff Dalton, JANET: J.Dalton@uk.ac.ed
AI Applications Institute, ARPA: J.Dalton%uk.ac.ed@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Edinburgh University. UUCP: ...!ukc!ed.ac.uk!J.Daltonperson@plains.NoDak.edu (Brett G. Person) (11/26/90)
Rod Brooks' book is also well done.Wish I could find my copy. :-) Since I cant find the book, I wont attempt to mangle the titile. -- Brett G. Person North Dakota State University uunet!plains!person | person@plains.bitnet | person@plains.nodak.edu
gevins@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov (Jody Gevins) (11/27/90)
In article <6916@plains.NoDak.edu> person@plains.NoDak.edu (Brett G. Person) writes: > >Rod Brooks' book is also well done.Wish I could find my copy. :-) >Since I cant find the book, I wont attempt to mangle the titile. It's called: Programming in Common LISP, publisher: Wiley. -Jody