Re: Really dumb LISP question.

On Jul 20, 2:40 am, Bryan <yournotau...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
OK, I've read several web pages and PDFs on LISP.  I think I get the
basics of how to write functions and macros, but just the basics.
That said, what I don't "GET" is how to write a lisp program.

The way I go to learn a new language is to do something fairly basic,
like text processing on a file or processing the output from a basic
Unix utility, like using the output from a few 'ps -eo
pid,pcpu,vsz,args' commands to look for memory leaks.  I'm guessing
these are not the standard solution domain for LISP, because I
couldn't believe how difficult it was to just to find out how to read
a file in LISP.  The first two books I looked through, "Common LISP,
an Interactive Approach" and "Common LISP: A Gentle Introduction",
didn't even touch on the subject of reading a file.  Then I found "On
Lisp" and "Practical Common LISP", and they made more sense to me, and
told me about the "with-open-file" macro among other things, but I
guess I still don't "Get" functional programming.  Can anyone suggest
any book or web resource that can, maybe, help me wrap my head around
it?

Thanks,
Bryan

Bryan,

I'm pretty much in the same situation as you, except maybe a year
ahead. I've followed the advice to learn a new language every year,
and in the past decade I've learned about 12 different languages and
variants (such as C/C++).

I'm also a working programmer and spend my working days writing code,
for which I am paid a salary by my employer, so this isn't just a
hobby for me.

Several years ago when I started Lisp, I hit a brick wall. I made no
headway whatsoever. Since then, I have progressed to the point where I
am now writing Lisp scripts to do useful things. I'm no expert, but at
least I can write and read Lisp on a basic level.

1. You can purchase Lisp books inexpensively or acquire them for free.
Start one and study it until you hit a dead end. Then study another
one. Cycle through several, then start over. This practice has helped
me with the languages that I use on a daily basis, and has helped me
with Lisp. Here are the ones that have proven helpful to me:
Wilensky, Common LISPCraft
Winston and Horn, Lisp, 3rd Edition
Seibel, Practical Common Lisp

Here are three others that aren't for beginners:
Graham, Common Lisp
Keene, OOP in Common Lisp
Lamkins, Successful Common Lisp

2. Use the language. This is the ONLY way you will learn it. If you
don't use it, you won't learn it.

3. Bite the bullet and learn emacs.

CC
.

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