I am starting a new project at work where I will be required to use Lisp as a part of some cognitive work that I will be doing. I'm not very familiar with Lisp. Do any of you know of any books that will help me get up to speed quickly?
+20
A:
Practical Common Lisp by Peter Seibel is very popular and available online.
vinc456
2009-01-29 15:08:24
+4
A:
Paul Graham's books on lisp are good: http://www.paulgraham.com/books.html
John Paul Jones
2009-01-29 15:09:23
+1
A:
Paul Graham's books ANSI Common Lisp and On Lisp are really good. On Lisp is free too.
Scott
2009-01-29 15:10:00
Key point. This book, unlike all others mentioned, is specific to Scheme vs Common Lisp (both are Lisp dialects)... but it is a really good book.
2009-01-29 15:21:52
Not to mention all the other good side effects you get form reading this book, like getting a better understanding of programming and programming languages in general.
erikric
2010-04-08 08:35:30
I read Practical common lisp and everything went fine now im reading the little schemer, but i would recommend starting with this one(its the same, little schemer is the new edition of little lisper)
DFectuoso
2009-01-29 18:54:31
+7
A:
I can second the recommendation for On Lisp, but don't make it the first Lisp book you read. The first part of the book is totally appropriate for relative beginners, but you'll get a lot more out of it if you work through something else first. Both Practical Common Lisp and ANSI Common Lisp have also already been mentioned, and I also highly recommend them. I think ANSI Common Lisp is the best of them for quickly getting a sense of how Lisp "works".
Also, don't just read! The Seibel book link already posted has a link to lispbox, a free and painless-to-setup Lisp development environment.
jtolle
2009-01-29 15:35:12
On Lisp is targeted at programmers that already know Lisp. So, that's a great recommendation. Also, ANSI Common Lisp neglects a lot of important CL features. So if you read that, I suggest you complement it with Practical Common Lisp.
Luís Oliveira
2009-01-29 21:43:41
I agree with the above comment about PCL being better for learning the details, but ACL is great for getting a programmer who is unfamiliar with any Lisp or even functional language to understand some key concepts quickly.
jtolle
2009-01-30 15:47:01
+5
A:
Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp is good. Don't let the title fool you, it's not all about AI. It's more of a history of AI, showing you how various historically important AI programs could be implemented in Common Lisp from scratch yourself. It has a ton of good general Lisp information that's applicable outside the realm of AI.
Brian Carper
2009-01-29 18:18:48
Not the ideal beginner's book, but invaluable if you're doing serious work.
David Thornley
2009-01-29 18:39:15
+1
A:
The Common Lisp Hyperspec is a useful reference, and it's generally easy to find things in there. Don't try to learn Common Lisp from it, but it may be very handy to have.
David Thornley
2009-01-29 18:43:16
+2
A:
Let Over Lambda is a good read. It is more about learning Lisp than learning "Lisp syntax", though, so don't make it your first book.
jrockway
2009-01-30 20:32:09
A:
Not for beginners, in Lisp or programming, but one of the most beatiful book I read about computer programming:
Some links I collected about Lisp
http://delicious.com/ajlopez/lisp