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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 material before digging in the recommendations (PAIP, PCL, SICP).
"Programming MotherFucker - Do you speak it?" -Zed Shaw Couldn't resist the above quote from Zed Shaw; the guy who started the Learn X The Hard Way series. Overall I think these tend to be a very good approach to learn, especially for someone just starting out.
Zed didn't write this... it's some knockoff "hacker" using the same title and format.
https://gitorious.org/learn-x-the-hard-way/learn-x-the-hard-...
The brilliant thing about zedshaw's "Learn X The Hard Way" is that it focuses on typing the code and learn-by-doing programming. Learn Lisp the Hard Way just explains Lisp then tacks on a few exercises.
I (and presumably Zed, from his previous comments), wouldn't mind if the author had mimicked the entire format, because it works. "Learn Lisp the Hard Way" would be necessarily very different from "Learn JavaScript the Hard Way," but this is just a programming book with a familiar yet misleading title slapped on top.
"Strict functional programming languages" could be interpreted as languages with strict evaluation. But I guess it is clear in this context that they mean pure functional languages (or pretty rigorous with regards to purity).
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).
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).
> Lisp—the friendly nickname for Common Lisp Sorry, but this is an awful way to start... just get the Wikipedia definition?
Dont talk about the 80s. Dont talk about 27 different and incompatible implementations. Dont talk about lambda calculus or McCarthy. Dont talk about 1001 different editors. Nobody finding about Lisp today cares about these things, it is just annoying noise that dilutes the message.
If youre stealing the title of a Python book, then at least make the experience as newbie-friendly as Python is.