Name: ANSI Common Lisp
ISBN: 9780133708752

ANSI Common Lisp

Teaching users new and more powerful ways of thinking about programs, this two-in-one text contains a tutorial--full of examples--that explains all the essential concepts of Lisp programming, plus an up-to-date summary of ANSI Common Lisp. Informative and fun, it gives users everything they need to start writing programs in Lisp and highlights innovative Lisp features.

What Hacker News says

cryptonectorJul 2025

> While I'm here I'll ask: does anybody have a recommendation for resources on learning lisp that focus on how the interpreter/compiler works?

Yes: Lisp in Small Pieces, by Christian Queinnec.

I've read a fair number of books on Lisp, including Paul Graham's On Lisp and ANSI Common Lisp, and IMO Lisp in Small Pieces is the best for understanding how to implement a Lisp. LiSP covers interpreters and compilers, and it covers how to implement call/cc. Like Paul Graham's books on Lisp, LiSP is highly enjoyable -- these are books I read for fun.

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-__---____-ZXywMay 2025

Successful people outgrowing their jodhpurs and losing their reason is a thing, sure, but that does not apply in this specific case. Tech writing is still writing, my friend.

Have you read ANSI Common Lisp? Or even the introduction to it?

I have criticisms of Mr. Graham, but the man can write, and consistently. Some of the essays can be a tad too terse for me at times, but when he gets it right, his stuff can be exquisite.

Another example that comes immediately crashing to mind is Donald Knuth - have you read any of his tech writing? It's glorious.

Anyone who wants to claim there's a hard line between writing worthy of "literary merit" and tech writing is going to have their work cut out for them with those two already.

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daniel-cussenJul 2023

Dude Common Lisp 100%!

Don't fret if you think you're mediocre. I myself have been trying to get through On Lisp since 2008. Then, after that, Let over Lambda. Not better, but v strong book, i can tell the guy while not the best at humblebragging has so much cool stuff there.

ANSI Common Lisp n that's plenty to not be mediocre! I did get through the whole thing in 2009, what a great book!

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medo-bearMay 2023

This book is unique in that it offers a very good overview of Common Lisp concepts for beginners and professionals alike. There is some pretty advanced content in there presented in a very succint way.

As for the date, please know that this book is about ANSI Common Lisp. That is it is about a standardised language. It is not implementation or hardware specific. Therefore 90%+ of the content is relevant today as it is when it was written. That is simply the nature of Common Lisp.

If I was to make a Common Lisp lecture I would use this book and expand on the content where apropriate.

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dwringerMar 2023

> Paul Graham (Y Combinator co-founder) has a lot of essays on Lisp or mentions of Lisp

Nobody mentions them much here for some reason, but also the books ANSI Common Lisp and On Lisp, at one time considered almost essential reading. I still think they're fantastic but they're not for instant gratification as they don't give you much in terms of immediate practical applications or real world system examples. Nevertheless they are among my favorite books on programming and I wouldn't be surprised if many people who come here similarly "cut their teeth" with those books.

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fm2606Jan 2023

Mostly books. Old school ;-)

Toureztky's Common Lisp A Gentle Intro to Symbolic Programming Norvig's PAIP Seibel's Practical Common Lisp Graham's ANSI Common Lisp

I'd like to snag a copy of Sonya Keene's book on CLOS but hesitant to drop $50+ for a used book.

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