Anatomy of LISP

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1. jcynixFeb 2026
   The bibliography contains a typo, namely entry 5 misses an "l" in Allegro.

   And a book, which I'd call "an Oldie but Goldie" could be added: John Allen's "Anatomy of Lisp" (1978) which still is an excellent read for those who want to dive deep into Lisp's interna. One might also call it a precursor of SICP, as it covers a number of introductory topics too.

   Abstract: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/542865

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2. eager_learnerApr 2025
   A good text to make you aware of the power of Lisp is "The Anatomy of Lisp" by John Allen (MIT). It's an old text but they don't write books like that anymore.
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3. lispmMay 2024
   You are on the surface. I'm talking about a computing paradigm defined by LISP. A foundational model at the core of the language, enabling us to understand how the List Processor actually works.

   LISP has dialects which are not homoiconic, where programs are not written as s-expressions, ... But the core is the same: a specific List Processor. McCarthy himself did not want to write programs as s-expressions. He defined M-Expressions, where S-Expressions were only used for the data.

   Check the book "Anatomy of LISP", which is a classic. All the code in the book is written in M-Expressions. Now, Racket gets a new syntax (-> Rhombus). But the language core mechanisms are still there. I'm a fan of the s-expression syntax, but I've also heard&read from many people (incl. McCarthy), that THEY preferred a different syntax. I've seen Apple defining Dylan (Dynamic Language) with an s-expression syntax and then changing the language to a different syntax for broader adoption. You (and me) think it is essential. McCarthy and others thought that it was the wrong syntax for getting wider adoption.

   Btw., personally, I don't care that much what Rich Hickey says. I can think for myself.

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4. soegaardFeb 2024
   Lisp in Small Pieces - Christian Queinnec https://christian.queinnec.org/WWW/LiSP.html

   Anatomy of LISP - John Allen https://archive.org/details/anatomyoflisp0000alle/

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5. abecedariusAug 2022
   I have fond memories of Allen's book Anatomy of Lisp. I guess there are only historical reasons to read it now, but at the time it felt like an introduction to wizardry.
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6. DonaldFiskDec 2020
   There's Lisp In Small Pieces by Christian Queinnec (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lisp-Small-Pieces-Christian-Queinne...), and if you want to look into CLOS in depth, there's The Art of the Metaobject Protocol by Kiczales, des Rivieres, and Bobrow (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Metaobject-Protocol-MIT-Press/d...). There's also a good older text, Anatomy of Lisp by John Allen (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anatomy-LISP-McGraw-Hill-computer-s...).
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