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I'm about to learn Lisp and/or Clojure(Script). How does this book differ from for e.g Land of Lisp? I was planning to get my fingers dirty with some more light

by jozi9 12y ago

I'm about to learn Lisp and/or Clojure(Script). How does this book differ from for e.g Land of Lisp? I was planning to get my fingers dirty with some more light material before digging in the recommendations (PAIP, PCL, SICP).

techpeace 12y ago
Looks like this one isn't totally finished, at the moment. You're probably better off starting with Land of Lisp.
dutchrapley 12y ago
If you're interested in looking at Clojure, checkout Clojure for the Brave and True. http://www.braveclojure.com/ http://www.braveclojure.com/
- jozi9 12y ago
  Thanks for the repleis! I'm currently close to web development (as people nowadays) so that's why I'm thinking about learning clojure/script rather than Lisp - because I can use clojure in daily work but not Lisp.
jarcane 12y ago
Practical Common Lisp is the best Common Lisp learning book there is. Land of Lisp is funny and all, but it doesn't make any attempt to really help you get set up with practical tools for interacting, relies on CLISP which is buggy and slow, and is honestly a bit too in love with huge, complex nested data trees and car/cdr wizardry. PCL will teach you CL, how CL works, in clear language and examples. Ultimately, though, I realized I prefer the Scheme family (especially Racket). CL is crufty and arcane, and I prefer the Lisp-1 model (this does come at a cost to macro ease of use, but I'm not yet a huge macro fanatic, and once you learn the harder Scheme/Racket macros they can do insanely great things). For learning Scheme, SICP is the classic, and there's an interactive version of it. I also recommend the Little Schemer for getting yourself in the mindset of learning how to use recursion in clever ways. For Racket, the go to choices are Realm of Racket (which you can think of as a more clearly written Racket version of LoL but with a slightly less interactive approach), and How To Design Programs (which is quite a lot to get through, being designed as a full year course in CS).
evanspa 12y ago
I started my Lisp journey seeking to learn Clojure too. I starting out with The Little Schemer[1]. I chose Scheme so that I could first wrap my head around the basic Lisp syntax, along with the recursive and functional thinking. To keep things as simple as possible, I did 95% of the exercises using a composition notebook and pencil[2]. This kept the incidental complexity to a minimum. Later, I moved on to the Clojure books. Working through the Little Schemer was invaluable (and its bibliography is excellent too). [1] http://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/0262560992/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415384298&sr=8-1&keywords=the+little+schemer http://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/02... [2] https://github.com/evanspa/TheLittleSchemer/blob/master/schemer-grab.JPG https://github.com/evanspa/TheLittleSchemer/blob/master/sche...

by jozi9 12y ago

techpeace 12y ago

Looks like this one isn't totally finished, at the moment. You're probably better off starting with Land of Lisp.

dutchrapley 12y ago

If you're interested in looking at Clojure, checkout Clojure for the Brave and True. http://www.braveclojure.com/ http://www.braveclojure.com/

jozi9 12y ago
Thanks for the repleis! I'm currently close to web development (as people nowadays) so that's why I'm thinking about learning clojure/script rather than Lisp - because I can use clojure in daily work but not Lisp.

jarcane 12y ago

Practical Common Lisp is the best Common Lisp learning book there is. Land of Lisp is funny and all, but it doesn't make any attempt to really help you get set up with practical tools for interacting, relies on CLISP which is buggy and slow, and is honestly a bit too in love with huge, complex nested data trees and car/cdr wizardry. PCL will teach you CL, how CL works, in clear language and examples. Ultimately, though, I realized I prefer the Scheme family (especially Racket). CL is crufty and arcane, and I prefer the Lisp-1 model (this does come at a cost to macro ease of use, but I'm not yet a huge macro fanatic, and once you learn the harder Scheme/Racket macros they can do insanely great things). For learning Scheme, SICP is the classic, and there's an interactive version of it. I also recommend the Little Schemer for getting yourself in the mindset of learning how to use recursion in clever ways. For Racket, the go to choices are Realm of Racket (which you can think of as a more clearly written Racket version of LoL but with a slightly less interactive approach), and How To Design Programs (which is quite a lot to get through, being designed as a full year course in CS).

evanspa 12y ago

I started my Lisp journey seeking to learn Clojure too. I starting out with The Little Schemer[1]. I chose Scheme so that I could first wrap my head around the basic Lisp syntax, along with the recursive and functional thinking. To keep things as simple as possible, I did 95% of the exercises using a composition notebook and pencil[2]. This kept the incidental complexity to a minimum. Later, I moved on to the Clojure books. Working through the Little Schemer was invaluable (and its bibliography is excellent too). [1] http://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/0262560992/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415384298&sr=8-1&keywords=the+little+schemer http://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/02... [2] https://github.com/evanspa/TheLittleSchemer/blob/master/schemer-grab.JPG https://github.com/evanspa/TheLittleSchemer/blob/master/sche...