7 ms·

Lisp in Small Pieces: Table of Contents and Code

120 points by _qc3o 12y ago

macmac 12y ago
The title appears to indicate that the book would be available for download (free), but this does not appear to be the case. Am I overinterpreting or missing something?
- lisper 12y ago
  No. The linked page is essentially an advertisement. (But the book is well worth buying.)
  - easytiger 12y ago
    Yea, an article reviewing the book might be appropriate but this isn't, especially since it is £66. And no prelude to prerequisite skills is discussed. edit Google helped me find the front matter: http://assets.cambridge.org/97805215/45662/frontmatter/9780521545662_frontmatter.pdf http://assets.cambridge.org/97805215/45662/frontmatter/97805...
  - dang 12y ago
    Thanks. We changed the title to be less misleading.
caisah 12y ago
"This is an excellent book on Lisp implementation. You'll get a lot out of it, whether you are interested in writing compilers and interpreters (for Lisp or any language) or whether you just want to see how Lisp works. It is the modern day successor to Allen's "Anatomy of Lisp"." Peter Norvig
mahmud 12y ago
Off-topic: I know this is a long stretch, but if any of you bought a used copy of LiSP from someone in Virginia, USA, please can you check if your copy has a telephone number hand written on inside of the right cover? It's the only contact I had to my step-father and I have not heard from him since. We haven't been in touch since my mother's passing.
- aidenn0 12y ago
  It might be worth also asking on the newsgroup c.l.l and the irc channel #lisp on freenode.
  - paines 12y ago
    and reddit !
- malandrew 12y ago
  Some people on here are remarkably good at sleuthing and tracking people down if you provide enough clues to work from. Was he a professional software engineer? A lisper? Approximately how old? etc. When was the book sold? Circumstances under which it was sold?
kovrik 12y ago
Could someone give an advice on how to grok Lisp, please? I write Clojure code, read Lisp books, articles etc. But I don't feel 'magic' yet. How did you get 'addicted' to Lisps?
- dkarapetyan 12y ago
  You're using some interesting words for something that is a tool to accomplish a task. You should continue to write code in Clojure and also other languages like C, Python, JavaScript, Ruby, C#, F#, etc. if you want to become a better programmer. A programming language is a tool like any other and it is not magical or addictive. Your goal should be to solve problems by using the most appropriate tools for the job. Focusing on anything else I think is misguided.
  - bulte-rs 12y ago
    Yet, even carpenters can have favorite tools. I really enjoy hitting stuff with a large sledgehammer; that doesn't mean I use it to do everything... I just really like hitting stuff with a big hammer, makes it extra special when I can actually use it. Same applies - imo - to programming languages. I use Ruby for most of my work since "it just gets the job done"; but I really love the moments I can work on one of my clojure projects. Clojure is my favorite hammer at this moment, that might change to F#, Haskell, Go, <new language> anytime.
    - dkarapetyan 12y ago
      That's why I said one should program in a plethora of languages to understand the strengths and weakness of each paradigm and feature set. You wouldn't use a sledgehammer to put a nail in the wall for hanging a picture and similarly there are certain situations where Clojure or Ruby is not the right language.
      - bulte-rs 12y ago
        But imagine how much fun it would be to drive that tiny nail into the wall with that huge sledgehammer. I don't disagree with you - on the contrary - but just wanted to point out that fun might be a great motivator for chosing a language.
mrfabbri 12y ago
Another interesting book on implementing Lisp (from a C perspective) is http://www.buildyourownlisp.com/ http://www.buildyourownlisp.com/. Also, Lithp from fogus http://fogus.me/fun/lithp/ http://fogus.me/fun/lithp/ is a nice and brief exploration of implementing Lisp in Python and good example of literate programming.
- agumonkey 12y ago
  Another interesting lisp is Maru http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/157xdz/maru_is_a_symbolic_expression_evaluator_that_can/ http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/157xdz/maru_is_... from I. Piumarta (Inria, VPRI), sophisticated yet beautiful C code.
  - mrfabbri 12y ago
    1750 lines of fascinating C [encompassing an garbage collector and user-level implementations of user-defined types and structures, single-dispatch object-oriented "messaging", and generic "multimethods"]

120 points by _qc3o 12y ago

The title appears to indicate that the book would be available for download (free), but this does not appear to be the case. Am I overinterpreting or missing something?

lisper 12y ago
No. The linked page is essentially an advertisement. (But the book is well worth buying.)
- easytiger 12y ago
  Yea, an article reviewing the book might be appropriate but this isn't, especially since it is £66. And no prelude to prerequisite skills is discussed. edit Google helped me find the front matter: http://assets.cambridge.org/97805215/45662/frontmatter/9780521545662_frontmatter.pdf http://assets.cambridge.org/97805215/45662/frontmatter/97805...
- dang 12y ago
  Thanks. We changed the title to be less misleading.

caisah 12y ago

"This is an excellent book on Lisp implementation. You'll get a lot out of it, whether you are interested in writing compilers and interpreters (for Lisp or any language) or whether you just want to see how Lisp works. It is the modern day successor to Allen's "Anatomy of Lisp"." Peter Norvig

mahmud 12y ago

Off-topic: I know this is a long stretch, but if any of you bought a used copy of LiSP from someone in Virginia, USA, please can you check if your copy has a telephone number hand written on inside of the right cover? It's the only contact I had to my step-father and I have not heard from him since. We haven't been in touch since my mother's passing.

aidenn0 12y ago
It might be worth also asking on the newsgroup c.l.l and the irc channel #lisp on freenode.
- paines 12y ago
  and reddit !
malandrew 12y ago
Some people on here are remarkably good at sleuthing and tracking people down if you provide enough clues to work from. Was he a professional software engineer? A lisper? Approximately how old? etc. When was the book sold? Circumstances under which it was sold?

kovrik 12y ago

Could someone give an advice on how to grok Lisp, please? I write Clojure code, read Lisp books, articles etc. But I don't feel 'magic' yet. How did you get 'addicted' to Lisps?

dkarapetyan 12y ago
You're using some interesting words for something that is a tool to accomplish a task. You should continue to write code in Clojure and also other languages like C, Python, JavaScript, Ruby, C#, F#, etc. if you want to become a better programmer. A programming language is a tool like any other and it is not magical or addictive. Your goal should be to solve problems by using the most appropriate tools for the job. Focusing on anything else I think is misguided.
- bulte-rs 12y ago
  Yet, even carpenters can have favorite tools. I really enjoy hitting stuff with a large sledgehammer; that doesn't mean I use it to do everything... I just really like hitting stuff with a big hammer, makes it extra special when I can actually use it. Same applies - imo - to programming languages. I use Ruby for most of my work since "it just gets the job done"; but I really love the moments I can work on one of my clojure projects. Clojure is my favorite hammer at this moment, that might change to F#, Haskell, Go, <new language> anytime.
  - dkarapetyan 12y ago
    That's why I said one should program in a plethora of languages to understand the strengths and weakness of each paradigm and feature set. You wouldn't use a sledgehammer to put a nail in the wall for hanging a picture and similarly there are certain situations where Clojure or Ruby is not the right language.
    - bulte-rs 12y ago
      But imagine how much fun it would be to drive that tiny nail into the wall with that huge sledgehammer. I don't disagree with you - on the contrary - but just wanted to point out that fun might be a great motivator for chosing a language.

mrfabbri 12y ago

Another interesting book on implementing Lisp (from a C perspective) is http://www.buildyourownlisp.com/ http://www.buildyourownlisp.com/. Also, Lithp from fogus http://fogus.me/fun/lithp/ http://fogus.me/fun/lithp/ is a nice and brief exploration of implementing Lisp in Python and good example of literate programming.

agumonkey 12y ago
Another interesting lisp is Maru http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/157xdz/maru_is_a_symbolic_expression_evaluator_that_can/ http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/157xdz/maru_is_... from I. Piumarta (Inria, VPRI), sophisticated yet beautiful C code.
- mrfabbri 12y ago
  1750 lines of fascinating C [encompassing an garbage collector and user-level implementations of user-defined types and structures, single-dispatch object-oriented "messaging", and generic "multimethods"]