Lisp?

U

untz

Registered
Hello again,

Several questions regarding Lisp:

* What's the best one (implementation / version) to use for learning on OS X Tiger?

* What is it used primarily for?

* What are its advantages / disadvantages?

* Any recommendations for a good book or online tutorial?

* Is it better to learn Scheme?

Many, many thanks!
 
Wow, I haven't encountered LISP in a long, long time. However ...

* What is it used primarily for?
Click to expand...

The name LISP stands for LISt Processing. LISP was originally all about "Expert Systems" and other artificial intelligence techniques.

* What are its advantages / disadvantages?
Click to expand...

Like Perl, LISP has great text and data processing abilities. Its main disadvantage is obscurity, meaning its a little hard to get good information and books.

* Is it better to learn Scheme?
Click to expand...

Any particular reason why you'd choose to learn Lisp or Scheme? I mean, both of these strike me as very specialised languages that are not used in application development, but only in research and computer science. They're also not as much in demand as many other languages as a skill. So, that said, what is it you actually want to achieve, or learn?

As for your question of where to get LISP, you can install it as a package via Fink. This is a list of packages available via Fink that include the term "LISP":
http://fink.sourceforge.net/pdb/search.php?summary=lisp
 
Areas where I have used Lisp and very close derivatives in real world situations within the last 5 years:

* DSSSL transformer (openjade) for converting SGML/XML to something else (HTML, pdf via TeX...) (Scheme)
* extension language to Autocad (cannot remember flavour)
* extension language to emacs editor (Common Lisp)

Things I will use in the near future (very keen, but limited by time):
* CLIPS expert system shell (syntax based on Scheme)
* Open Data Explorer (Scheme)

I think that usage is more limited by lack of suitable environments than by limitations to Common Lisp or Scheme. I found all of the above to be pretty heavy stuff, and I was glad the the language was familiar. Lisp is definitely worth learning.

I learnt with a classic book: "The little LISPian".
 
Ok, I have to bite...

Emacs is written using a language called Emacs Lisp. Actually Emacs is
a kind of Emacs Lisp interpreter. When you start Emacs (or XEmacs),
it starts in a buffer called *scratch*. You can evaluate Lisp
expressions there, so (if you have Emacs), it is easiest place to study Lisp.
 
Thanks to this thread, I looked around again and stumbled across
Lispworks
who seem to have exactly what I wanted all the time.
There is a free personal edition which can be downloaded free.
:)

Emacs is great for learning the basics, but you tend to be locked inside emacs and you tend to end up using emacs as the operating system ;)
 
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