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> Thus, if you're looking to get started with programming in Common Lisp, then there are 2 options: The author misses the third, most classical, and constantly

> Thus, if you're looking to get started with programming in Common Lisp, then there are 2 options: The author misses the third, most classical, and constantly useful option: doing it all yourself. Despite the scary name, there's not all that much to do, and this approach is the most widely supported in the community. The checklist is: * SBCL/CCL (from your package manager or from official binaries), * Quicklisp (by downloading it from https://quicklisp.org/ https://quicklisp.org/), * Emacs (in any preferred way), * Slime/Sly (manually, or via `(ql:quickload quicklisp-slime-helper)`, or via using an Emacs distribution, such as Spacemacs with its common-lisp layer, which already contains preconfigured slime/sly). There, you're good to go. Using some sort of toolkit which enables interactive and incremental programming (such as Swank/Slynk on the Lisp side and any Slime/Sly client on the editor side) is an ABSOLUTE MUST while doing Lisp. If you're allergic to Emacs and therefore can't use Slime/Sly, use: * slimv/vlime for vim, * Alive for VSCode, * Slyblime for Sublime, * atom-slime for Atom.

ngcc_hk 6y ago
Too complicated. Those quicklisp and slime is not easy for starter (but sort of essential as lots of functions can be obtained via this distribution manager). The approach he tried is using as simple as one can. I guess the only thing missing is if you were mac and windows user ...
- phoe-krk 6y ago
  Yes - Portacle is an amazing piece of software and also the way to go for someone who just wants to check Lisp out on Mac/Win/Linux, but it also has its issues, e.g. with some systems that depend on foreign libraries. Also, if someone already has emacs set up and preconfigured, there's no point in adding another emacs instance with a distinct configuration for long-term programming.
- rvense 6y ago
  I found getting slimv and sbcl running to be quite easy. If you're used to vim and console apps it's straight forward.
- susam 6y ago
  Last week, I shared a 35 line ~/.emacs (as a Show HN post) that turns Emacs into a Common Lisp development environment pretty quickly: https://github.com/susam/emacs4cl https://github.com/susam/emacs4cl . It provides a good middle ground between configuring Emacs manually by installing SLIME, Paredit, etc. yourself with M-x package-install commands and installing Portacle. It promotes a do-it-yourself approach to setting up Emacs for Common Lisp programming quickly while understanding each step of the set up process and each line of ~/.emacs well.
wheresvic4 6y ago
Yes, this is definitely an option and it really should have been mentioned but given that even https://common-lisp.net/downloads https://common-lisp.net/downloads recommends that one use portacle to get going quickly for newbs, it seem prudent not go too far off-track :).

ngcc_hk 6y ago

Too complicated. Those quicklisp and slime is not easy for starter (but sort of essential as lots of functions can be obtained via this distribution manager). The approach he tried is using as simple as one can. I guess the only thing missing is if you were mac and windows user ...

phoe-krk 6y ago
Yes - Portacle is an amazing piece of software and also the way to go for someone who just wants to check Lisp out on Mac/Win/Linux, but it also has its issues, e.g. with some systems that depend on foreign libraries. Also, if someone already has emacs set up and preconfigured, there's no point in adding another emacs instance with a distinct configuration for long-term programming.
rvense 6y ago
I found getting slimv and sbcl running to be quite easy. If you're used to vim and console apps it's straight forward.
susam 6y ago
Last week, I shared a 35 line ~/.emacs (as a Show HN post) that turns Emacs into a Common Lisp development environment pretty quickly: https://github.com/susam/emacs4cl https://github.com/susam/emacs4cl . It provides a good middle ground between configuring Emacs manually by installing SLIME, Paredit, etc. yourself with M-x package-install commands and installing Portacle. It promotes a do-it-yourself approach to setting up Emacs for Common Lisp programming quickly while understanding each step of the set up process and each line of ~/.emacs well.

wheresvic4 6y ago

Yes, this is definitely an option and it really should have been mentioned but given that even https://common-lisp.net/downloads https://common-lisp.net/downloads recommends that one use portacle to get going quickly for newbs, it seem prudent not go too far off-track :).