8 ms·

Book review: Land of Lisp

111 points by alrex021 16y ago

dogas 16y ago
I seriously cannot wait for this book to arrive in the mail.
- nkassis 16y ago
  Same here, I've been reading the ebook version but I want a thing I can grab and take everywhere. (Reading on my phone isn't ideal). But the book is good enough that I don't mind the small screen. The last book I spent reading entirely online was the Harry Potter Deathly Hollows leak. 700 crappy photos of pages ;p (I bought 2 copies of the book too, I don't feel I've done anything wrong).
  - vb6 16y ago
    2 copies. If we all did that think how much money JK Rowling would have. Although legally you are a pirate what you really are is a patron of the arts.
    - kiba 16y ago
      I am sure JK Rowling would still make a lot of money from American if the US had not signed a copyright reciprocity treaty with UK in the late 19th century. I imagine that Rowling would sell her manuscript to US publishers in an auction house before putting her work on sale globally. Who knows? She probably make a few million dollars on the low side and much more if the US publishers are real crazy about it. Heck, this lead to a premises of my next novel(for the moment, I am writing a novel on a bunch of subversive robots). An American publisher/pirate decides to get into the mechanical computer business. He purchased an invention from a mother of an inventor and proceed to violate the inventor's patent by selling it to the average UK consumer, and then the world, ushering in the computer revolution.
  - khafra 16y ago
    You're about to read another book online: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_M... Written by http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Eliezer http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Eliezer
    - spokey 16y ago
      For what it is worth I'm pretty sure Land of Lisp author Conrad Barski is an HN user as well. I think we talked at an HN meetup (but I don't know his id offhand). If you are reading this Conrad, congrats! The book looks great and seems very well received. I'm curious, does a "slashdotting" create a noticeable blip in traffic or book sales anymore?
      - callahad 16y ago
        Conrad is http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=drcode http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=drcode His post announcing the book is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1836935 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1836935
      - drcode 16y ago
        Yes- The slashdot book review took my Amazon rank from ~1700 down to ~550 for a few days (which is a great rank for a niche-y programming book...)
mishmash 16y ago
I'm probably going to buy this, but would anyone be able to explain the state of programming Lisp on Mac OS X?
- alrex021 16y ago
  Clozure[1], formally know as OpenMCL, is a great CL implementation for Mac and other popular platforms. I've been running Clozure and Aquamacs[2] editor for the past two years and I can only say good things about both. [1] http://www.clozure.com/clozurecl.html http://www.clozure.com/clozurecl.html [2] http://aquamacs.org/ http://aquamacs.org/
- msbarnett 16y ago
  Disclaimer: I'm just starting to get into Lisp, myself. I don't think it's any better or worse than any other platform, really. Using a package manager like Homebrew[1], it's easy to get SBCL installed and running. Gambit reportedly has good support for integrating into Objective-C applications on the Scheme side. There's also Nu[2], which lets you do Cocoa programming in a Lispish language. [1] https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew [2] http://programming.nu/index http://programming.nu/index
- b_emery 16y ago
  PG uses a mac book air: http://paul.graham.usesthis.com/ http://paul.graham.usesthis.com/ maybe we can infer that Lisp (or Arc) works well on it.
  - JoelMcCracken 16y ago
    The main requirement for Arc is an older build of plt, which works wonderfully on OS X
    - dchest 16y ago
      Arc 3.1 works with the current version http://arclanguage.org/item?id=10254 http://arclanguage.org/item?id=10254
  - 16y ago
spacemanaki 16y ago
I'm reading it right now, and it's definitely fun. He doesn't glamorize Common Lisp (instead pointing out some design quirks) but his enthusiasm is still totally infectious. I think the video on the book's site captures the spirit of the book wonderfully.
kennedywm 16y ago
This book makes me wonder why all "serious" material isn't presented in such a clear and entertaining manner. Five stars.

111 points by alrex021 16y ago

dogas 16y ago

I seriously cannot wait for this book to arrive in the mail.

nkassis 16y ago
Same here, I've been reading the ebook version but I want a thing I can grab and take everywhere. (Reading on my phone isn't ideal). But the book is good enough that I don't mind the small screen. The last book I spent reading entirely online was the Harry Potter Deathly Hollows leak. 700 crappy photos of pages ;p (I bought 2 copies of the book too, I don't feel I've done anything wrong).
- vb6 16y ago
  2 copies. If we all did that think how much money JK Rowling would have. Although legally you are a pirate what you really are is a patron of the arts.
  - kiba 16y ago
    I am sure JK Rowling would still make a lot of money from American if the US had not signed a copyright reciprocity treaty with UK in the late 19th century. I imagine that Rowling would sell her manuscript to US publishers in an auction house before putting her work on sale globally. Who knows? She probably make a few million dollars on the low side and much more if the US publishers are real crazy about it. Heck, this lead to a premises of my next novel(for the moment, I am writing a novel on a bunch of subversive robots). An American publisher/pirate decides to get into the mechanical computer business. He purchased an invention from a mother of an inventor and proceed to violate the inventor's patent by selling it to the average UK consumer, and then the world, ushering in the computer revolution.
- khafra 16y ago
  You're about to read another book online: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_M... Written by http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Eliezer http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Eliezer
  - spokey 16y ago
    For what it is worth I'm pretty sure Land of Lisp author Conrad Barski is an HN user as well. I think we talked at an HN meetup (but I don't know his id offhand). If you are reading this Conrad, congrats! The book looks great and seems very well received. I'm curious, does a "slashdotting" create a noticeable blip in traffic or book sales anymore?
    - callahad 16y ago
      Conrad is http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=drcode http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=drcode His post announcing the book is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1836935 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1836935
    - drcode 16y ago
      Yes- The slashdot book review took my Amazon rank from ~1700 down to ~550 for a few days (which is a great rank for a niche-y programming book...)

mishmash 16y ago

I'm probably going to buy this, but would anyone be able to explain the state of programming Lisp on Mac OS X?

alrex021 16y ago
Clozure[1], formally know as OpenMCL, is a great CL implementation for Mac and other popular platforms. I've been running Clozure and Aquamacs[2] editor for the past two years and I can only say good things about both. [1] http://www.clozure.com/clozurecl.html http://www.clozure.com/clozurecl.html [2] http://aquamacs.org/ http://aquamacs.org/
msbarnett 16y ago
Disclaimer: I'm just starting to get into Lisp, myself. I don't think it's any better or worse than any other platform, really. Using a package manager like Homebrew[1], it's easy to get SBCL installed and running. Gambit reportedly has good support for integrating into Objective-C applications on the Scheme side. There's also Nu[2], which lets you do Cocoa programming in a Lispish language. [1] https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew [2] http://programming.nu/index http://programming.nu/index
b_emery 16y ago
PG uses a mac book air: http://paul.graham.usesthis.com/ http://paul.graham.usesthis.com/ maybe we can infer that Lisp (or Arc) works well on it.
- JoelMcCracken 16y ago
  The main requirement for Arc is an older build of plt, which works wonderfully on OS X
  - dchest 16y ago
    Arc 3.1 works with the current version http://arclanguage.org/item?id=10254 http://arclanguage.org/item?id=10254
- 16y ago

spacemanaki 16y ago

I'm reading it right now, and it's definitely fun. He doesn't glamorize Common Lisp (instead pointing out some design quirks) but his enthusiasm is still totally infectious. I think the video on the book's site captures the spirit of the book wonderfully.

kennedywm 16y ago

This book makes me wonder why all "serious" material isn't presented in such a clear and entertaining manner. Five stars.