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Land of Lisp (2010)

landoflisp.com

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Re: Land of Lisp (2010)

#31

Post by jergason »

jhbadger wrote: post #15
Dangeranger wrote: post #3

This book is well worn, dog eared, and on my home office book shelf. While many people criticize it, for legitimate reasons, it is still a fun and wonderful journey through Common Lisp. I wish more books were written in this irreverent and whimsical style. If however you want a more traditional and "from zero" introduction to Lisp, then "Common LISP - A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation"[0] may be better. I…

If you like this sort of thing, here are some others in a similar humorous style for other languages. 1. Kaufman, Roger. A FORTRAN Coloring Book (probably the first funny programming book -- from 1978). 2. Lipovača, Miran. Learn You A Haskell for Great Good. 3. Hebert, Fred. Learn You Some Erlang for Great Good (inspired by the Haskell book). 4. Felleisen, Matthias. Realm of Racket (basically Land of Lisp for Racket.…

Why’s Poignant Guide To Ruby is also in this vein, though a bit weirder.

Re: Land of Lisp (2010)

#33

Post by emsimot »

Riverheart wrote: post #30
drcode wrote: post #18

Author of LOL here, if there are any questions!

Hey Dr Barski. I'm actually reading your book right now. I do have a question. How do you write Lisp effectively? And by that I mean, Lisp seems to be written from the inside out due to the nested lists. Is there something that makes it more natural to write: (trim-string (get-string '(some data))) Or do you need to know that you're going to call trim before you get the string? Hope that makes sense.

Does Common Lisp have something similar to Clojure's threading macros?

  (trim-string (get-string '(some data)))

  (-> '(some data)
      get-string
      trim-string
https://clojure.org/guides/threading_macros

Re: Land of Lisp (2010)

#34

Post by pcr910303 »

max_wen wrote: post #26
kazinator wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> is there such a thing as a bad Lisp book? Yes, there exists a certain a really awful book from the 1980's about making your own Lisp in C, which has recently been reprinted in essentially its original form.

I nearly started working through that, would you mind sharing why you think it is a bad book? thx

I’m pretty sure it’s because the lisp that book makes isn’t an exact lisp; There are many features lacking and some fundamental concepts are wrongly implemented; However for developing C skills, it’s pretty good. Wouldn’t recommend learning Lisp with that though.

Re: Land of Lisp (2010)

#35

Post by pcr910303 »

emsimot wrote: post #33
Riverheart wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey Dr Barski. I'm actually reading your book right now. I do have a question. How do you write Lisp effectively? And by that I mean, Lisp seems to be written from the inside out due to the nested lists. Is there something that makes it more natural to write: (trim-string (get-string '(some data))) Or do you need to know that you're going to call trim before you get the string? Hope that makes sense.

Does Common Lisp have something similar to Clojure's threading macros? (trim-string (get-string '(some data))) (-> '(some data) get-string trim-string https://clojure.org/guides/threading_macros

Yes, of course there is... Lisp always has the thing you find :-) https://github.com/hipeta/arrow-macros

Re: Land of Lisp (2010)

#38

Post by js8 »

bsg75 wrote: post #25
jhbadger wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you like this sort of thing, here are some others in a similar humorous style for other languages. 1. Kaufman, Roger. A FORTRAN Coloring Book (probably the first funny programming book -- from 1978). 2. Lipovača, Miran. Learn You A Haskell for Great Good. 3. Hebert, Fred. Learn You Some Erlang for Great Good (inspired by the Haskell book). 4. Felleisen, Matthias. Realm of Racket (basically Land of Lisp for Racket.…

> nobody's done a "Commonwealth of Clojure" Higginbotham, Daniel. Clojure for the Brave and True. https://www.braveclojure.com/

I really loved the part where Lady Gaga explained multitasking.

Re: Land of Lisp (2010)

#39

Post by steveeq1 »

Dangeranger wrote: post #3

This book is well worn, dog eared, and on my home office book shelf. While many people criticize it, for legitimate reasons, it is still a fun and wonderful journey through Common Lisp. I wish more books were written in this irreverent and whimsical style. If however you want a more traditional and "from zero" introduction to Lisp, then "Common LISP - A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation"[0] may be better. I…

What are the criticisms of it? Curious.

Re: Land of Lisp (2010)

#40

Post by _ph_ »

Jach wrote: post #10
nothrabannosir wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second the recommendation for Practical Common Lisp, even for complete beginners and newcomers to Lisp. It covers the very basics, and the writing style is accessible and patient.

Is there such a thing as a bad Lisp book? ;) Maybe there are only ones you're not ready for yet... (I've been unsuccessfully searching for a hardcover of Art of the Metaobject Protocol for a while, I can make myself ready for it once I have it.) In HN tradition where we all recommend every book we've ever read similar to the submitted one (and Land of Lisp is worth reading), an overlooked recently published booklet I…

> Is there such a thing as a bad Lisp book? ;) Maybe there are only ones you're not ready for yet... (I've been unsuccessfully searching for a hardcover of Art of the Metaobject Protocol for a while, I can make myself ready for it once I have it.)

The Art of the Metaobject Protocol is truely a delightful book. While it is probably not very useful for practical programming - it isn't meant as a teaching book for beginners, it certainly is enlighting how to bootstrap an object oriented system on a common lisp without any object facilities. So if you can get hold of one, grab it!

Personally, I am not a fan of the Keene book. I know, many people here disagree with my view, but I neither like its writing style nor the programming style it presents. I would strongly recommend Practical Common Lisp instead.

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