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I have some basic python experience so I know the basics of programming such as variables, data types, functions and basic OO.

What is a good source to learn common lisp?

charliePH
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  • possible duplicate of [What's the best way to learn LISP?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/398579/whats-the-best-way-to-learn-lisp) – Rainer Joswig Sep 16 '11 at 18:30
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    No thats not a duplicate as far as I'm concerned, that guy had way to much experience to be compared to this person. – neil Sep 16 '11 at 22:48

5 Answers5

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Try Practical Common Lisp by Peter Seibel, it's available online.

Nathan Hughes
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  • +1 for that book. I learned Lisp from it, and it's practical part shows the power of lisp is a less academic way. – Linuxios Nov 26 '11 at 17:48
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In my opinion, Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation is the best introductory Lisp book available. It has a good pace for (even absolute) beginners, and there are nice little exercises with solutions. If I interpret your self-description correctly, this would be a good read for you.

When I recommended it to some of my fellow students, all agreed that this was a very solid introduction to Lisp, and everybody passed the exam without problems. Some (those already quite good at programming) found it too slow paced, however.

Then, good second reads (or first, if you feel bored by Touretzky) would be Practical Common Lisp and Successful Lisp.

Finally, one of my favorite books not only about Lisp, but programming in general is PAIP. I prefer its style to SICP, which is also great and recommended by many.

danlei
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To add to Nathan's excellent suggestion, there's also Land of Lisp. :-)

C. K. Young
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  • While this is a very cool book, from what I read (the first two sections) it seemed a little unstructured to me -- Which was also what a friend of mine, who is learning Lisp atm, complained about. I suggested to take a look at Touretzky instead, and he found it to be a better introduction. (But then: There are different tastes and different kinds of learners, so take this comment cum grano salis.) – danlei Sep 16 '11 at 16:30
  • I have gone through about 100 pages of the book. It has all these cool illustrations and I liked reading it like a novel.The lack of exercises to get your hands dirty is really annoying, especially once you are comfortable with the general syntax. – Diadara Nov 19 '13 at 18:45
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check "Ansi Common Lisp" by Paul Graham

it would also make sense to read SICP (http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/) before it.

aav
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    Despite the name, Graham's *ANSI Common Lisp* is not a great first book on the language. Graham's style is very quirky. – Pillsy Sep 16 '11 at 16:15
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Be sure to check out the Hyperpolyglot Lisp section. It's a great cheat sheet to use and very useful if you already know a variant of Lisp.

As a final note, are you sure you want to learn Common Lisp? There are some modern Lisps which are interesting, e.g., Clojure, Racket, New Lisp, Qi.

Peteris
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