ANSI Common Lisp
by Paul Graham · first published 1996
50% recommend47% neutral2% critical
Why HN recommends it
Clear, fast-paced, no-nonsense Common Lisp text that reads like a college textbook, with exercises and answers. Suits programmers who already know how to code and want to reach advanced Lisp quickly.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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On Lisp by Paul Graham is a good start: http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html Edit: I meant ANSI Common Lisp. Thanks everyone! (I wouldn't even recommend On Lisp as a second text, too much macrology).
on “Ask HN: I want to start learning Lisp. Where do I begin?” ↗…someone who learned a little Lisp in the last few years, I think there is a good collection of books available for the newbie who wants to learn. For Common Lisp, Land of Lisp, Practical Common Lisp, and Ansi Common Lisp all seem good enough to get hacking quickly. Thinking about community effects, I'm not as convinced a community represents a gating factor for hackers. I attend the occasional Clojure meetup (and Clojure/Conj…
on “A Personal Lisp Crisis (2012)” ↗Frankly, I do not think very highly of _why's writing style. I find the book to be very difficult to read. If you want an example of excellent technical writing, consider Paul Graham's 'On Lisp' or 'ANSI Common Lisp'.
on “The Most Unusual (and Best) Computer Language Book I've Ever Seen.” ↗…including a link to lispbox, which in the best "learn the hard way" tradition, requires you to finally learn emacs. [http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/] [http://common-lisp.net/project/lispbox/] PG's own Ansi Common Lisp is more of a traditional textbook as well as a reference to the language. The exercises are thought provoking. It is available through Amazon including used copies. Because Lisp originated as a way of…
on “Ask HN: How do I improve my programming/engineering skills” ↗I learned lisp a few years ago originally with Paul Graham's ansi common lisp and built a few products in various common lisp systems but after a while I really fell in love with scheme. I tried out numerous scheme ecosystems and fell in love with chicken very quickly. Since I…
on “Behind the Scenes with Chicken Scheme” ↗…first few chapters of "Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp" by Peter Norvig. His writing style is exceptional. Not quite so clear, but also not too dense, is "ANSI Common Lisp" by Paul Graham. Peter Seibel's "Practical Common Lisp" is dense (words per page), but is good for a "now I know a little Lisp, what can I do with it" book to read second. Winston's "Lisp (3rd)" goes…
on “Starting with Lisp: A collection of beginner pointers” ↗The two more Lisp books: Paul Graham's ANSI Common Lisp - I purchased a used copy from Amazon. What I like is that it is a text book and has true exercises and not just code to type in. The downside is that complex ideas are often described briefly. Peter…
on “Some Lisp books (and then some)” ↗Great book, but not if you are just starting out with Lisp. For that, see PG's other book: http://www.amazon.com/ANSI-Common-LISP-Paul-Graham/dp/013370... Also make sure you check the errata for On Lisp, there are a few examples that you will really need the errata for.
on “On Lisp” ↗…interested in lisp are going into work looking down their noses at people. They're probably mostly people who like to try different tools and learn new things. I don't use lisp but I loved reading through PG's ANSI Common Lisp book because it really challenged me to think about programming and problem solving in a way I never had before. I think I write better code because I did learn lisp. https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0133708756
1. Ansi Common Lisp - Paul Graham 2. On Lisp - Paul Graham 3. Elements of Computing Systems - Noam Nisan
on “Ask HN: What are the 3 programming books you learned the most from? Mine” ↗Books -ANSI Common Lisp by Paul Graham -On Lisp by Paul Graham -Simply Scheme -The Little Schemer -Structure And Interpretation Of Computer Programs -Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming Implementations Common…
on “Ask HN: I want to start learning Lisp. Where do I begin?” ↗For Common Lisp: Practical Common Lisp is a good introductory text. ANSI Common Lisp is older, but still relevant (the standard is from 1994, it hasn't changed, though the community and tooling has the language is stable). On Lisp and Let over Lambda are good follow-on texts if you want…
on “Why Emacs: Redux” ↗…rewrite everything you've ever done in one red-eyed night. The next morning, you will be reborn. But seriously, if you really want to learn Lisp, drop the $40 (or whatever it costs at the moment) on ANSI Common Lisp; it's a great read. Once you plow through that and are hungry for more, look for On Lisp or Practical Common Lisp; both of them are available online. If it wasn't for my classes with their requirements…
on “For Lispers: How accurate is this portrait of Lisp?” ↗There's much to be said for a well-written book. I have enjoyed reading through Paul Graham's "ANSI Common Lisp," for example, because reading through an entire well-written book, you can pick up on much more insight than you can simply browsing small chunks of information in weblogs. I can tap into the mind of…
on “Learn, But Not Necessarily Through Books” ↗…interesting (at least to this audience), and convincing. Y Combinator seems pretty successful, and PG is good at it. (I'm not going to give reasons for the success of YC here.) His books On Lisp and ANSI Common Lisp are arguably among the best books about Lisp. He is making his own dialect of Lisp (see http://arclanguage.org/). I've looked it over, and it looks like a good language. Probably not all the hype cracks…