4 comments about An Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp.

1. I originally got this book to learn a few "tricks" to help me use Emacs. I am not a programmer, and thought programming was mysterious and difficult. However, Robert Chassell is an incredible teacher. I never thought programming could be explained so well to such as rank beginner as myself. And he makes it all seem very easy and logical. Not at all scary. I wish he taught at my college.



2. I was really excited to grab a copy of this book, and it didn't let me down. It's a gentle but thorough introduction to using elisp. I do a bit of programming in other languages, but had never tried elisp. Now I'm excited to dive in and start making emacs do (even more) work for me.



3. Emacs is the best editor, ever. Of course, you hear people say that, and than you try to use it and get confused by ALT-META-SHIFT this and META-META-CTRL-ALT that. Look! I will let you in on a secret. Emacs is completely ***programmable*** in it's own language: Emacs lisp. With a few wizardly strokes, you can change the behavior of emacs to behave like editor X you are used too.
   
   Now, there are alot of features of Emacs that simply make it the most useful editor around. Most important, is it's ability to split the screen. I can not stress how useful it is, when working on code, to be able to work on a file from several frames at once. There is no other editor I know of that does it like Emacs does.
   
   There are a number of packages available for Emacs, I never looked at even 10% of them all. I like Speedbar over Emacs native file system. CEDET and Semantic bovine are nice too. If you are a beginner, you will probably find those packages are all you will need, and mostly just search on Google to find out how to alter the editor behavior so you don't have to know all the shortcuts right away. After you know your way around you learn those shortcut keys later.
   
   Emacs requires some patience if you are new to it but when you get it you will never want to go back to some inferior product.



4. A very good introduction to using elisp. I have about a decade of experience programming and extending Emacs; I picked this up to consider giving it to my computer science students. I finally decided against it only because Successful Lisp is such an amazing book. No, really, I cannot recommend Successful Lisp highly enough.
   
   This book is very good and focuses on the specifics of Emacs Lisp. If you are interested in extending that venerable editor, this is a good place to start. If you are interested in learning programming in Lisp (specifically Common Lisp), take a look at Successful Lisp.

5 comments about Object-Oriented Common LISP.

1. Lisp provides an incredible amount of programming concepts. All the concepts are described in Steele's monumental "Common Lisp, the language" or the newer hypertext version on the web. The one gripe I have with Steele's book is that it lacks examples. Sthepen Slade provides all the examples of common usage that Steel might have provided.



2. This is a great introduction to Common Lisp for those who are looking for a complete, tutorial-style text book with lots of examples. This is the most under-appreciated Lisp book I know of. This is not the end of the journey, of course. Graham's books make a good follow-up.



3. While taking a course in AI, I was recommended by the professor to buy the Winston and Horn book which I did. However, lucky for me, I had checked out Dr. Slade's book from the library. Everytime a programming project came around, if I needed to figure out how to do something, I always turned to Object-Oriented Common Lisp. Why? Because if I couldn't figure out how to do something from Winston and Horn, I usually found it in this book (not that Winston and Horn is a bad book, just this book seems much better). If you need to know how to get something done in Lisp, I think this is the book for you. If you want to be an AI snob well then get the other book.



4. The book has one chapter on CLOS, the Common Lisp Object System, pretty much the same as any other Lisp tutorial. As such, the title is very misleading, and the reader expecting an in-depth treatment of object-oriented programming in Common Lisp will be very disappointed. This book isn't bad, but Peter Seibel's excellent Practical Common Lisp is better in pretty much every respect. If you still want a dedicated book on CLOS, Sonya Keene's "Object Oriented Programming in Common Lisp" is a much better tutorial, and Kiczales' "The Art of the Metaobject Protocol" is a wonderful treatment of the CLOS internals, though not for the faint of heart.



5. I'd bought a copy of Keene, because I'd heard it was good, but ended up being a bit disappointed with it. So when I saw Slade's book, I wondered if this was the CLOS book I'd been looking for. Short answer: no, it's worse.
   
   It's not even clear what the book is trying to teach: programming, or Lisp, or object-oriented programming, or CLOS. He seems to be trying to do all of the above, but due to the huge scope, being unable to go deep into anything. He starts chapters with irrelevant quotes, which works if you're Knuth, but he's no Knuth. He jumps around a lot, and the order is bizarre: several important concepts are held off until relatively late. Other big concepts are mentioned only in passing, which an experienced Lisper will understand, but then, if you already know what he means, why would you read this book?
   
   No surprise that I'd not heard of this book: in a field of classics, there's just no point. If you want to learn programming, read SICP. If you want to learn Common Lisp (with lots of sample code), read PCL, or PAIP. If you want to learn CLOS, read AMOP; if that's too rough, get Keene.
   
   The back cover mentions "classroom experience", so perhaps it's written to accompany a course taught by Slade. If you had a couple hours of lecture to flush out the details of each section, it might be passable. If you're reading it as a standalone book, it leaves much to be desired.
   
   Finally, the back cover advertises that this book "introduces advanced concepts such as LAMDA". Yes, it misspells one of the basic Lisp symbols right on the cover. That's all you really need to know about this book. Stick with the classics.

3 comments about Visual Lisp: A Guide to Artful Programming (Autodesk's Programmer).

1. THE MOST HELPFUL GUIDE TO VISUAL LISP I'VE SEEN SO FAR. A REAL MUST HAVE VOLUME.



2. The manual appears to be very good but without the use of the cd file containing all the functions, it's useless. The manual directs to run setup, which isn't there. Upon examination of the the four remaining files there is a list of the four files on cd, no setup and no apparrent way of doing it manually because there is no database of the functins. The manual also suggests downloading the latest version but the website is invalid. Trying to reach Phil Kreiker by email is also invalid. I tried Bill Krammer's, who wrote an intro to the book, websit and found an 800 # only got a lot of run-around. I see nearly a 50/50 split on the feedback on the book. ???Has anyone had this problem??. Amazon.com is still selling it, with the same errors. How good is this book if it is so poorly checked before publishing?
   Tom Curtis
   curtis@geeksnet.com



3. I have seen almoost all the books available on visual lisp and autolisp. I found this one the most useful. The accompanying software creates an elegant and more lisp-like abstraction on the top of visual lisp's VBA-like constructs. Very well designed api, and a thoroughly enjoyable book. Many thanks.
   
   Jayanta

1 comments about Common Lisp.

1. Hennessey gives a very clear introduction to basic LISP programming techniques, syntax and usage. He assumes little or no previous programming experience and while his book may not cover the more erudite uses that LISP is commonly used for, I would recommend it highly to a beginner, as it satisfies his needs exactly to the level where he can start learning to be a serious LISP programmer.

2 comments about The Elements of Artificial Intelligence Using Common Lisp.

1. Tanimoto provides a very broad treatment of AI techniques. As such dicussions are often brief. There is an outstanding section on Computer vision. Knowledge representation is also well covered. The author presents highly idiomatic examples of Lisp code. This book would be ideal for anyone not familiar with AI techniques who wants to do AI research and/or development.



2. I learned to programming Common Lisp using Tanimoto's book (in conjunction with Winston Horn's "Lisp"). The book's writing is superb, and the examples are very well thought out and implemented.

   One word of caution: the book was written before the complete standardization of Common Lisp. So some of the functions, such as those specific to I/O and FEXPR will not work on current Common Lisp implementations (such as GCL). But all of these functions can be worked around easily.

   I'll still give this book a five star. The book is particularly good for self-study. So I recommend it to any AI enthusiast.

5 comments about Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation.

1. An excellent book for beginners. If you are a newbie and you want to buy only one Lisp book, this is it! Highly recommended.



2. This is an excellent tutorial. A good place to start before reading any of Graham's books.
   
   Although the book is now out of print, you can use the link below to download the pdf at no expense.
   
   http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/



3. We had a LISP course (prerequisite for AI) in the university, and our teacher used this book. I immediately fell in love with the language! This book is written in a fun way, that really makes sense. It was only from this book that I mastered the art of recursion (the cat in the hat comes back? the dragon stories?). Everything was fun about this book, you really have the sense that it was made with extreme passion and dedication; something that usually doesn't apply to programming books.



4. This is a great book for those wanting to learn Lisp.
   In the first part of the book, when describing functions, the author stays away from Lisp and any real programming notation, using diagrams to show some of the fundamental concepts -- which are explained in such a clear way that everything become so obvious! Later he switches to Lisp, telling you it's a "different notation for the same ideas".
   The text is always clear, short and right to the point.



5. The book is useful even if you have programming experience in other languages. It explains important concepts (list, cells, symbols, variables etc) better than many other programming books do.
   
   Highly recommended!

No comments about Common Lisp Drill.

5 comments about The Little LISPer, Third Edition.

1. I read this beautiful little book as a child and it has never left me. It left me with a clear and straightforward understanding of the basics of LISP -- in this it remains possibly the most enjoyable and time-efficient technical book I've ever read, but much more than this it is a book I still often call to mind as an example of good pedagogy or simply of good design in any field.



2. I gave an earlier edition of The Little LISPer a glowing review in Byte in 1980. It was then the best introductory book on programming, regardless of language, and I still haven't seen anything to compare with it.

   The greatest strength of LISP is its firm base in the essentials of the mathematics of computability, including Goedel's recursive functions and Church's Lambda calculus. It uses a single data structure, the linked list, and a minimum of programming primitives, all with well-known mathematical properties. For those who don't know the mathematics, this base in simple concepts means that LISP is one of the easiest programming languages to understand, and at the same time one of the most powerful.

   The greatest strength of Little LISPer is its easy and natural sequence of steps for introducing data types and structures (numeric, text, and Boolean atoms organized in lists and trees) along with the recursive programming structures that are natural for creating and processing them.

   I have just ordered the third edition for my son who is learning programming (if he can get it away from me).




3. I'm still struggling with lisp, but this book was simple, to the point, and clear. I didnt even get annoyed by his goofy attempts at humor.



4. The pinnacle of the act of teaching is to be simultaneously clear, simple, interesting, and complete. This is rarely achieved in person, and almost never in writing; "The Little LISPer" achieves it. I believe this defines what a teaching book can be. It is brief. It can be read in snippets, at any pace. It will maintain the interest of anyone who comes to learn. The reader is left ready to write Lisp code, no matter what background precedes it.

   I read this book in high school in 1982; it taught me enough that five years later I aced a four-credit independent study class in Lisp (at an Ivy League college) without any further reading. Hey, I *told* him I already knew Lisp! Dr. Friedman, I hope you come across this endorsement some day; please accept my thanks for creating this wonderful little gem. (Pass the pizza, please, I have a little more to write...)

   I cannot endorse this book highly enough. If you want to learn Lisp, I know of no better place to go.




5. ...it's been obsoleted by its own fouth edition. No place on the listing for this book do I find a hint that this is the third edition of a book currently in its FOURTH edition. They renamed the book The Little Schemer for the fourth revision. Buy that book instead.

3 comments about Common Lispcraft.

1. This book is a classic in the Lisp literature. It is extremely readable. Those new to Lisp can gain from this. Good Lisp programming style is emphasized. this book is a reworking of the author's earlier book LispCraft. Ease of reading should be considered this work's greatest asset.



2. While this is a good book for a reference to the language, there are virtually no examples of code within the book at all. If you are new to LISP, you will not benefit much by buying this.



3. Although the author of the book is teaching my LISP class, the book is very difficult for a beginner to LISP and has almost no actual code to learn from. It tends to be wordy and the examples are abstract and not clear. The author is a really nice guy, but in consencus with many of my other classmates, the book is very hard to learn from and brushes over many topics which I have found covered in greater detail in other texts.

5 comments about Object-Oriented Programming in Common Lisp: A Programmer's Guide to CLOS.

1. Keene covers CLOS thoroughly and clearly. A classic. Can't say much else. If you care about your LISP programming craft, buy this book.



2. You are going to get precisely what is advertised: a good guide to object-oriented programming in Common Lisp, no less, no more.



3. This is a nice "tutorial style" walk through much of the functionality of CLOS.

   It doesn't get into examples that are of _spectacular_ complexity, either in size or in difficulty of concept, but that strikes me as being just fine. The dialect of CLOS in use predates the final version that was released, so a few examples require a little modification to work with modern Lisp releases.

   If you're looking to get into the sophistication of redefining your own metaobject protocols, the MOP book is surely more suitable. But for most of us who just need to figure out what CLOS is good for, this book provides a very nice presentation of that.




4. Lisp is kinda hot again, Perl 6 will have multiple dispatch, Ruby's getting before and after methods, and Aspect Oriented Programming is still bubbling under in Java, so what better time to revisit the Common Lisp Object System and this slim volume from 1989? Unsurprisingly, objects in Lisp are implemented differently to the well-known object systems, even Smalltalk, so if you're into OO (and in particular AOP), check out CLOS.
   
   And this book is an excellent way to get acquainted with the features of CLOS. While the introduction suggests non-Lispniks can benefit from reading this book, I would strongly suggest you can read Lisp to make sure you understand what's going on. It's a quick read (about 220 pages, excluding the appendices), the language is unfussy and clear, and the concepts are simply explained.
   
   The hoary old shape example is used briefly (perhaps it wasn't as tired in 1989), but the two main examples used in the book is a simple locking mechanism for concurrency, and multiple inheritance based disk and tape stream classes. Both example do the job well of highlighting the unique flavour of CLOS. The metaobject protocol is touched upon only briefly, but there's more than enough of the standard object protocol described for you to be getting your money's worth.
   
   Other introductory books do cover CLOS (Practical Common Lisp has a good chapter), but this is a very nice standalone volume devoted to CLOS only. Well worth reading, object (and Lisp) fans.



5. This is a great book. It shows everything about CLOS (except the metaobject protocol, which is just mentioned but not explained in detail). The explanations are very clear and the author does every possible thing to make you understand all details (a bit too much for me, but that's a matter of taste).
   
   For anyone interested in OO programming in Common Lisp, this is an essential book.
   Even if you are interested in OO programming in general, this book covers a different approach, so it is nice for a comparison (in CLOS, methods do not belong to classes, and there are lots of interesting tricks that you can do that are not possible in other languages).