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Advice no. 1 is to switch OS if you're a windows user? That's bad advice. LispBox works great, and the hurdle of changing OS isn't going to help you learn Commo

by lars 17y ago

Advice no. 1 is to switch OS if you're a windows user? That's bad advice. LispBox works great, and the hurdle of changing OS isn't going to help you learn Common Lisp. Lisps have got to be the easiest family of languages to get started with. Learn the syntax of a function call, and you'll understand most of the code you're seeing. Understanding it in depth is a bigger undertaking, of course.

mahmud 17y ago
Yep, I wrote 10k lines of lisp code on Windows and it builds on linux (a different implementation) unchanged. yesterday i built my app with Clozure Common Lisp, for the first time, and it ran from the first try. Two OSes, three implementations, tens of dependencies .. flawless.
- aerique 17y ago
  Suggesting to change your OS when you're on Windows is indeed bad advice. Clozure Common Lisp is a fine CL implementation for Windows and works well enough with Emacs and Slime. Emacs shouldn't be too much of a problem with version 23 and some sane Windows-oriented keybindings and CUA mode enabled. Perhaps someone (maybe me when I've got the time) should just put a good Emacs configuration online for people wanting to play with CCL, Emacs & Slime. Then again, Lispbox might be good enough as well. I've never checked it out.
icey 17y ago
I don't have a dog in this fight since I use Windows, OS X and Linux all with some regularity; but I have personally found that most documentation out there seemed to assume a *nix. Of course doing the mental mapping is trivial, but it is an additional factor to hold in your head. Honestly, I feel like the bigger hurdle is emacs, which isn't necessary, but almost every article about lisp makes it sound like it is.
- weaksauce 17y ago
  The mental mapping is less trivial if they only know windows. Not insurmountable but it is a bit of a curve. Though switching to linux just to learn a computer language is a bit drastic.
  - icey 17y ago
    Would you say it's more or less drastic than learning emacs? I'm going to go with less drastic.

by lars 17y ago

mahmud 17y ago

Yep, I wrote 10k lines of lisp code on Windows and it builds on linux (a different implementation) unchanged. yesterday i built my app with Clozure Common Lisp, for the first time, and it ran from the first try. Two OSes, three implementations, tens of dependencies .. flawless.

aerique 17y ago
Suggesting to change your OS when you're on Windows is indeed bad advice. Clozure Common Lisp is a fine CL implementation for Windows and works well enough with Emacs and Slime. Emacs shouldn't be too much of a problem with version 23 and some sane Windows-oriented keybindings and CUA mode enabled. Perhaps someone (maybe me when I've got the time) should just put a good Emacs configuration online for people wanting to play with CCL, Emacs & Slime. Then again, Lispbox might be good enough as well. I've never checked it out.

icey 17y ago

I don't have a dog in this fight since I use Windows, OS X and Linux all with some regularity; but I have personally found that most documentation out there seemed to assume a *nix. Of course doing the mental mapping is trivial, but it is an additional factor to hold in your head. Honestly, I feel like the bigger hurdle is emacs, which isn't necessary, but almost every article about lisp makes it sound like it is.

weaksauce 17y ago
The mental mapping is less trivial if they only know windows. Not insurmountable but it is a bit of a curve. Though switching to linux just to learn a computer language is a bit drastic.
- icey 17y ago
  Would you say it's more or less drastic than learning emacs? I'm going to go with less drastic.