[LUGSB] Lisp Links (+ recommended reading)

[John Zabroski]

--- On Wed, 12/10/08, Brian Fix <brian.fix at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> i agree i dont really reply.. usually someone has beat me
> to an
> answer.. but i do like reading them.. and wouldn't
> bother reading a
> web archive.

Not to mention the fact interviewers might prep by searching for what you've posted on various news groups.

I keep around a list of people who can't figure out how to unsubscribe themselves from a mailing list I'm on.  Nothing is more fascinating to me than a person who can't figure out how to do this.

As for learning Lisp, there are a ton of free books and most of them use Common Lisp or Scheme.  Teach Yourself Scheme in Fixnum Days is free online.... but perhaps a more interesting book for some of you would be a a free e-book about musical composition.  http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~ferguson/Notes%20from%20the%20Metalevel/nm/index.html You can also purchase the book off Amazon.  It is sort of more advanced.

I highly recommend watching the MIT lectures on Scheme.

If you want to learn how to write Lisp interpreters, start with the purple wizard book (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs) and the free online lectures.  From there, I recommend Lisp in Small Pieces.  It is amazingly in-depth and for the most part blows away all other similar books, like Allen's 1976 book (which is rare and expensive anyway).