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That was actually quite helpful. I've had the toughest time "thinking in Lisp" as I'm told I have to do to get my head around it (also because I work with the C

by eksith 13y ago

That was actually quite helpful. I've had the toughest time "thinking in Lisp" as I'm told I have to do to get my head around it (also because I work with the C++/C#/PHP family and switching between them and Lisp doesn't help). I really appreciate the simple instructions in that regard.

TomDavey 13y ago
I'm not a professional programmer, but I spend all day in Emacs primarily because of org-mode. Two years ago I read about org-mode here on HN and was inspired to give Emacs a shot. Today Emacs is my main technical hobby. Extending Emacs with Elisp is a pleasure and a joy. My various init files total over 3,000 lines of code that I wrote my own little self. That said, while I remain incredibly impressed with the integrated documentation system, especially the Info manuals for their sheer literacy and clarity, I discovered over time that it doesn't adequately teach you "the Lisp way." Explanations of the basic concepts -- like a symbol for crying out loud -- are scattered and not really complete, leading to frustration as I got deeper into extending Emacs. For me, the light bulb went off after I worked through Seibel's Practical Common Lisp. I've also read chunks of PG's On Lisp. Together these two outstanding books resulted in an epiphany regarding Lisp and the functional approach in general. The result is that, where before I couldn't figure out Emacs's own Elisp sources (i.e., "Why is this function written this way, and not that way? Why do I see this idiom so often, what's it doing?"), now I can. The payoff for writing my own Elisp has been incalculable. Now I'm fired up to read SICP, and Felleisen et al, hoping to learn more about functional programming.
- agumonkey 13y ago
  Allow me to suggest Coursera. They have nice courses about FP. Somehow in simple -> difficult order. Systematic Program Design by Gregor Kicsalez (I believe influenced by HtDP). Programming Languages by Dan Grossman. (50 50 HtDP SICP and Brown University material)* Functional Programming using Scala by Martin Odersky (influenced by SICP). In case you can already do the SICP exercises without issues then you won't need these, but otherwise, the deadlines and automatic grader were great ways to keep a regular pace in learning. *) this course focuses on semantics, and language design, the problems are not hard applied problem solving, that's why I put it in 2nd, but they can twist your mind quite a bit when dealing with different meta-levels.
  - TomDavey 13y ago
    I've never heard of these. Thanks much.
- gruseom 13y ago
  Congratulations for figuring all this out and getting to enjoy the rewards. But I'm curious: what do you do all day in Emacs if not programming?
  - jasonm23 13y ago
    Here's a short list of possible things... - Email - File Management - Text processing - IRC - Newsreading - Server Admin - Web browsing (esp. documentation) - Basically anything you can do in a terminal, and more (it'll display/process images, PDF, SVG) For most of these hardcore users, it's simply more convenient to stay in a highly programmable environment than it is to go and use an "end user" tool.

by eksith 13y ago

TomDavey 13y ago

I'm not a professional programmer, but I spend all day in Emacs primarily because of org-mode. Two years ago I read about org-mode here on HN and was inspired to give Emacs a shot. Today Emacs is my main technical hobby. Extending Emacs with Elisp is a pleasure and a joy. My various init files total over 3,000 lines of code that I wrote my own little self. That said, while I remain incredibly impressed with the integrated documentation system, especially the Info manuals for their sheer literacy and clarity, I discovered over time that it doesn't adequately teach you "the Lisp way." Explanations of the basic concepts -- like a symbol for crying out loud -- are scattered and not really complete, leading to frustration as I got deeper into extending Emacs. For me, the light bulb went off after I worked through Seibel's Practical Common Lisp. I've also read chunks of PG's On Lisp. Together these two outstanding books resulted in an epiphany regarding Lisp and the functional approach in general. The result is that, where before I couldn't figure out Emacs's own Elisp sources (i.e., "Why is this function written this way, and not that way? Why do I see this idiom so often, what's it doing?"), now I can. The payoff for writing my own Elisp has been incalculable. Now I'm fired up to read SICP, and Felleisen et al, hoping to learn more about functional programming.

agumonkey 13y ago
Allow me to suggest Coursera. They have nice courses about FP. Somehow in simple -> difficult order. Systematic Program Design by Gregor Kicsalez (I believe influenced by HtDP). Programming Languages by Dan Grossman. (50 50 HtDP SICP and Brown University material)* Functional Programming using Scala by Martin Odersky (influenced by SICP). In case you can already do the SICP exercises without issues then you won't need these, but otherwise, the deadlines and automatic grader were great ways to keep a regular pace in learning. *) this course focuses on semantics, and language design, the problems are not hard applied problem solving, that's why I put it in 2nd, but they can twist your mind quite a bit when dealing with different meta-levels.
- TomDavey 13y ago
  I've never heard of these. Thanks much.
gruseom 13y ago
Congratulations for figuring all this out and getting to enjoy the rewards. But I'm curious: what do you do all day in Emacs if not programming?
- jasonm23 13y ago
  Here's a short list of possible things... - Email - File Management - Text processing - IRC - Newsreading - Server Admin - Web browsing (esp. documentation) - Basically anything you can do in a terminal, and more (it'll display/process images, PDF, SVG) For most of these hardcore users, it's simply more convenient to stay in a highly programmable environment than it is to go and use an "end user" tool.