bienk@SPAM.ISTC.SRI.COM (Marie Bienkowski) (10/22/87)
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 87 11:03:46 PDT
From: glasgow@marlin.nosc.mil (Michael G. Glasgow)
I am new to AIList and AI programming and want to learn Lisp.
I have been looking through Steele's book, Common Lisp", and
have discovered that this is more of a reference manual than a
beginners guide. What I am wondering is if anyone can give me
the names of some good introductory Lisp books to get me started.
As several people mentioned in response to this query, there are
several good texts on Common Lisp. What surprises me is that no one
mentioned Deborah Tatar's book. First, let me say that I relied on
Winston and then Wilensky when teaching LISP, both are good books.
(with Wilensky's being better). But when I tried to learn Common Lisp
from Steele, then found it was impossible, I discovered Tatar's
excellent book. It's published by Digital Press, and is entitled "A
Programmer's Guide to Common Lisp." While I have not used her book
for teaching, I think the examples are good enough to warrant its use.
And it is the perfect companion to Steele (in fact, Steele, wrote
the foreward for it). It may be more difficult to get than, say,
Wilensky's, but I think it is worth it. (If you go for nice-looking
covers, on the other hand, get Wilensky's. It's great-looking!)
Marie Bienkowski
bienk@istc.sri.com