The Little Lisper is one of my favorite computer books.  I think it
teaches the idea of Lisp, though without expounding on it.

Monty

On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 1:33 AM, BGB <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 8/17/2011 6:41 PM, Alan Kay wrote:
>
> Take a look at Landin's papers and especially ISWIM ("The next 700
> programming languages")
> You don't so much want to learn Lisp as to learn "the idea of Lisp"
>
> now, I am wondering some what is exactly "the idea of Lisp"?
>
> putting the phrase into Google doesn't seem to turn up many obvious
> candidates.
>
> a guess: only a few syntax elements and types can represent a large variety
> of stuff (like, the world can be built up from a reasonably simple core).
>
> tried to make other guesses, but none really seem to stick.
>
> maybe also "code is data" and a few other things.
>
>
> (sorry, I tend to be a bit literal-minded and am not always so good at
> figuring out things like this).
>
> actually, it is sort of like the task of trying to write out a spec for a
> high-level overview of my object system and core typesystem and semantics.
> one has a sense of what it is, but trying to effectively explain it is
> difficult. basic idea: class-instance + dynamic extension + delegation +
> scopes-are-objects + ...
>
> sorry, I don't mean to make my stuff seem overly important, even if I am
> prone to write about it a lot.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
> Alan
>
> ________________________________
> From: karl ramberg <[email protected]>
> To: Fundamentals of New Computing <[email protected]>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 12:00 PM
> Subject: Re: [fonc] Extending object oriented programming in Smalltalk
>
> Hi,
> Just reading a Lisp book my self.
> Lisp seems to be very pure at the bottom level.
> The nesting in parentheses are hard to read and comprehend / debug.
> Things get not so pretty when all sorts of DSL are made to make it more
> powerful.
> The REPL give it a kind of wing clipped aura; there is more to computing
> than text io
> Karl
>
> On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 8:00 PM, DeNigris Sean <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> Alan,
> While we're on the subject, you finally got to me and I started learning
> LISP, but I'm finding an entire world, rather than a cohesive language or
> philosophy (Scheme - which itself has many variants, Common LISP, etc). What
> would you recommend to "get it" in the way that changes your thinking? What
> should I be reading, downloading, coding, etc.
> Thanks.
> Sean DeNigris
>
> You wouldn't say that "Lisp 1.5 Programmer's Manual" is outdated would you?
>  :-)
>
> _______________________________________________
> fonc mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> fonc mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> fonc mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> fonc mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
>
>

_______________________________________________
fonc mailing list
[email protected]
http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc

Reply via email to