3 ms·

To others in a similar position: if you want to learn a lisp, I think racket ( aka plt scheme ) would be the easiest introduction.

sivers 16y ago
(now curious:) Why do you feel Racket is a good introduction to Lisp?
- spooneybarger 16y ago
  It has been designed for teaching so there is a lot of material on their site geared towards learning. As part of that, it has a nice set of tools that make it easy to get started. There are a lot of books that teach intro to programming in scheme so there is plenty of offline material as well. The little schemer, SICP, How To Design Programs. See http://docs.racket-lang.org/ http://docs.racket-lang.org/. It also has an active mailing list that is quite noob friendly. EDIT: oh yes, and it is very a 'batteries included' environment. so you can worry about learning the language rather than getting your environment setup.
- drsnyder 16y ago
  I also think Racket is a good introduction to Lisp. The documentation is great. Take a look at the vector documentation as an example http://docs.racket-lang.org/reference/vectors.html?q=vector&q=return&q=vector http://docs.racket-lang.org/reference/vectors.html?q=vector&.... If you are not familiar with the language, there are plenty of examples to help you get going. I recently started working through The Practice Of Programming and I wanted to compliment it with a functional language. I thought it would make the on ramp to functional languages a little smoother by first coding something in a language I'm familiar with and then port it over (producing more idiomatic scheme is the next iteration). I chose scheme as the compliment and PLT/Racket as the environment. So far, it has been working well.
tmountain 16y ago
Racket is great, and I'm not trying to pick nits, but it's not a Lisp, it's a Scheme dialect. If you want to learn pure Lisp, I'd recommend Paul Graham's book, On Lisp, which is available online for free. http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html
- spooneybarger 16y ago
  Scheme is a lisp. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheme_(programming_language) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheme_(programming_language)
- amalcon 16y ago
  Scheme is a Lisp; it's just not a Common Lisp.
  - fogus 16y ago
    Not advocating either way, but it was always (and still is) interesting to read what Erik Naggum had to about Scheme's Lispiness: http://www.xach.com/naggum/articles/search?q=%22scheme+is+a+lisp%22&sort=of http://www.xach.com/naggum/articles/search?q=%22scheme+is+a+...
- gruseom 16y ago
  Not only is Scheme Lisp, but On Lisp is absolutely not a beginner's book.
- aaco 16y ago
  "... but it's not a Lisp ..." It is. "... pure Lisp ..." There is no such a thing as "pure Lisp". Lisp is not a programming language, it's a family of programming languages that share some common properties. To put it more clearly, we could represent Lisp and its members hierarchically: Lisp Common Lisp CLISP SBCL ... Scheme Racket Gambit Chicken ... Clojure ...
vito 16y ago
I'm very impressed with Racket. * The documentation is fantastic. Insanely easy to browse around, very well formatted, and interconnected nicely. * It comprises of multiple languages, and they can all interoperate - r5rs, r6rs, racket, etc. This has always been a major pain point for me when it comes to Scheme dialects - lots of implementations clinging to r5rs and using incompatible module systems. * PLaneT has a ton of libraries covering many fields, and it's great that it's integrated into the language (requiring something from PLaneT will automatically download it). * The community seems nice enough. I also love that the new site immediately shows off the language: http://racket-lang.org/ http://racket-lang.org/

sivers 16y ago

(now curious:) Why do you feel Racket is a good introduction to Lisp?

spooneybarger 16y ago
It has been designed for teaching so there is a lot of material on their site geared towards learning. As part of that, it has a nice set of tools that make it easy to get started. There are a lot of books that teach intro to programming in scheme so there is plenty of offline material as well. The little schemer, SICP, How To Design Programs. See http://docs.racket-lang.org/ http://docs.racket-lang.org/. It also has an active mailing list that is quite noob friendly. EDIT: oh yes, and it is very a 'batteries included' environment. so you can worry about learning the language rather than getting your environment setup.
drsnyder 16y ago
I also think Racket is a good introduction to Lisp. The documentation is great. Take a look at the vector documentation as an example http://docs.racket-lang.org/reference/vectors.html?q=vector&q=return&q=vector http://docs.racket-lang.org/reference/vectors.html?q=vector&.... If you are not familiar with the language, there are plenty of examples to help you get going. I recently started working through The Practice Of Programming and I wanted to compliment it with a functional language. I thought it would make the on ramp to functional languages a little smoother by first coding something in a language I'm familiar with and then port it over (producing more idiomatic scheme is the next iteration). I chose scheme as the compliment and PLT/Racket as the environment. So far, it has been working well.

tmountain 16y ago

Racket is great, and I'm not trying to pick nits, but it's not a Lisp, it's a Scheme dialect. If you want to learn pure Lisp, I'd recommend Paul Graham's book, On Lisp, which is available online for free. http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html

spooneybarger 16y ago
Scheme is a lisp. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheme_(programming_language) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheme_(programming_language)
amalcon 16y ago
Scheme is a Lisp; it's just not a Common Lisp.
- fogus 16y ago
  Not advocating either way, but it was always (and still is) interesting to read what Erik Naggum had to about Scheme's Lispiness: http://www.xach.com/naggum/articles/search?q=%22scheme+is+a+lisp%22&sort=of http://www.xach.com/naggum/articles/search?q=%22scheme+is+a+...
gruseom 16y ago
Not only is Scheme Lisp, but On Lisp is absolutely not a beginner's book.
aaco 16y ago
"... but it's not a Lisp ..." It is. "... pure Lisp ..." There is no such a thing as "pure Lisp". Lisp is not a programming language, it's a family of programming languages that share some common properties. To put it more clearly, we could represent Lisp and its members hierarchically: Lisp Common Lisp CLISP SBCL ... Scheme Racket Gambit Chicken ... Clojure ...

vito 16y ago

I'm very impressed with Racket. * The documentation is fantastic. Insanely easy to browse around, very well formatted, and interconnected nicely. * It comprises of multiple languages, and they can all interoperate - r5rs, r6rs, racket, etc. This has always been a major pain point for me when it comes to Scheme dialects - lots of implementations clinging to r5rs and using incompatible module systems. * PLaneT has a ton of libraries covering many fields, and it's great that it's integrated into the language (requiring something from PLaneT will automatically download it). * The community seems nice enough. I also love that the new site immediately shows off the language: http://racket-lang.org/ http://racket-lang.org/