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I enjoyed this book. I personally did not find it condescending. Additionally, the implementation of a Forth interpreter in this book is the best introduction t

I enjoyed this book. I personally did not find it condescending. Additionally, the implementation of a Forth interpreter in this book is the best introduction to Forth I've seen (even after years spent playing with Forth and reading one or two books on Forth). But I don't recommend this book as an introduction to (Common) Lisp. I recommend this order: 1. Practical Common Lisp 2. On Lisp (kind of a big jump, so maybe check out ANSI Common Lisp) 3. Let over Lambda 4. Lisp in Small Pieces (especially if you want to implement a Scheme or Common Lisp) With Common Lisp the Language (Guy Steele) and ANSI Common Lisp (Paul Graham) somewhere in the mix. These are all excellent books and must-reads for anyone interested in programming languages and/or the Lisp family.

z3phyr 8y ago
> 2. On Macros I have heard about On-Lisp. Is this the same reference?
- eatonphil 8y ago
  Oops, Freudian slip. The entire book is about macros. Thank you!
zoltar 8y ago
Good list. Practical Common Lisp deserves that spot at the top. It's very approachable and provides examples of all those features you keep hearing good things about. I remember running through the spam filter chapter and finding an email that SpamAssassin misclassified about four years prior. I think my favorite Forth introduction comes at it from the other direction, though: https://github.com/nornagon/jonesforth/blob/master/jonesforth.S https://github.com/nornagon/jonesforth/blob/master/jonesfort...
- eatonphil 8y ago
  That is a really impressive guide.
radiator 8y ago
- COMMON LISP: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation (1990) - Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp (1991) - Common Lisp Recipes (2015)
- z3phyr 8y ago
  > COMMON LISP: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation (1990) Its a great book for people coming out of non computing backgrounds!!!
  - kgwgk 8y ago
    And it's also available as PDF from the author's site: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/index.html https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/index.html

z3phyr 8y ago

> 2. On Macros I have heard about On-Lisp. Is this the same reference?

eatonphil 8y ago
Oops, Freudian slip. The entire book is about macros. Thank you!

zoltar 8y ago

Good list. Practical Common Lisp deserves that spot at the top. It's very approachable and provides examples of all those features you keep hearing good things about. I remember running through the spam filter chapter and finding an email that SpamAssassin misclassified about four years prior. I think my favorite Forth introduction comes at it from the other direction, though: https://github.com/nornagon/jonesforth/blob/master/jonesforth.S https://github.com/nornagon/jonesforth/blob/master/jonesfort...

eatonphil 8y ago
That is a really impressive guide.

radiator 8y ago

- COMMON LISP: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation (1990) - Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp (1991) - Common Lisp Recipes (2015)

z3phyr 8y ago
> COMMON LISP: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation (1990) Its a great book for people coming out of non computing backgrounds!!!
- kgwgk 8y ago
  And it's also available as PDF from the author's site: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/index.html https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/index.html