From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

Hello everyone!

I want to learn Common Lisp, but I don't really know what resources to
use.

What did you all use to learn? Is that even relevant? Is this newsgroup
active?

Thanks for everyone in advice
--
- mario
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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

Mario Rosell <mario@mariorosell.es> writes:

Hello everyone!

I want to learn Common Lisp, but I don't really know what resources to
use.

What did you all use to learn? Is that even relevant?

I learnt too many years ago to be able to help now, but I can help you
clarify what you need to say to get better advice. Do you know *any* programming languages, and if so, which ones? You are likely to benefit
from different resources if you know Haskell than if you know only C++.
Second, how much experience do you have and does any of that include
other flavours of Lisp? If you learnt, for example, Scheme, your path
will be very different to someone who didn't. Finally, what do you want
learn it for? It might just be for fun or it might be because you have
a very specific goal in mind for which someone might have some specific recommendations.

Is this newsgroup active?

Well, you and I are here! It has certainly been quiet.
--
Ben.
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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

Mario Rosell <mario@mariorosell.es> writes:

Hello everyone!

I want to learn Common Lisp, but I don't really know what resources to
use.

What did you all use to learn? Is that even relevant? Is this newsgroup active?

Thanks for everyone in advice

A place where you can start is with David S. TouretzkyrCOs
book "COMMON LISP: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic
Computation", which Carnegie-Mellon University has made
available for download as a PDF file:

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/book.pdf

In addition to the text that teaches you Common Lisp, it
includes exercises, answers to the exercises, and a glossary
to get the definitions of terms.

Although you can read the book, you will want to be able to
evaluate expressions both to practice and the confirm that
you understand what you are doing. Some readers of this
group might have a Lisp that they will recommend. I
recommend that you start by installing GNU Emacs on your
computer. It is a text editor that comes with its own Lisp,
called Emacs Lisp, that is similar enough to Common Lisp
that you will be able to complete many of the exercises
without installing a Lisp. Over decades, Emacs has been
developed so that it can be used as an environment that is
highly-optimized for Lisp programming, including Scheme and
Common Lisp.

If you have not used Emacs and are able to install it, then
you will want to look carefully the first time that you
start running it. You should see the following two links:

Emacs Tutorial
Emacs Guided Tour

The tutorial gets you started on using Emacs and the guided
tour shows you some of the capabilities that the editor.
The guided tour uses one of EmacsrCOs built-in web browsers to
download into the editor a web page with text and images to
give the tour.

You should also read the built-in manual titled "Introduction
to Emacs Lisp", which is available inside Emacs via its
menu:

menu -> Help -> More Manuals -> Introduction to Emacs Lisp

You might consider reading this (much smaller) book BEFORE
reading "Gentle Intro." because it will quickly give you an
idea of whether you want to learn Lisp.
--
The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parliament of Birds.
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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

Mario Rosell <mario@mariorosell.es> wrote or quoted:

I want to learn Common Lisp, but I don't really know what resources to
use.

I read parts of a Common Lisp specification by Guy Steele in
the 80s or 90s. But this is very long ago, and I have long
forgotten what I read. I don't really know Common Lisp well.

Some books come to mind, but I have not read any of them:

Practical Common Lisp by Peter Seibel (who was a regular here)

Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation by
David S. Touretzky

On Lisp by Paul Graham


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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) wrote or quoted:

Some books come to mind, but I have not read any of them:

Here are quotations from this group from the years starting
with "202":

|El Fri, 25 Sep 2020 17:08:53 -0700 (PDT), Ishaan escribi||:

What tutorial are you following?

"Practical Common Lisp" by Peter Siebel. Are their any good alternatives
to Emacs and lisp in a box that are easier to use? Thanks for the help! |That's a pretty good book, and Emacs with Slime is the best setup IMO, so '-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Jos|- Manuel Garc|!a-Patos on 2020-09-26 12:58:32+00:00 in comp.lang.lisp, Subject: Lisp programming questions


|[_]-- try the
| Book-- Land Of Lisp
| which is very simple to start with
| and it makes a sequence of games
| working up to a webserver version of Dice Of Doom
| in CommonLisp
| it's written by a doctor of medicine apparently '----------------------------------------------------------------------- picoVerse on 2021-03-22 02:58:01+00:00 in comp.lang.lisp,
Subject: Lisp programming questions


|There are a number of introductory books that have been produced over the |years. It doesn't matter if some of them are years old, as Common Lisp hasn't |changed in a while (although some libraries for doing things have). '-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Russ on 2022-01-26 20:28:48+00:00 in comp.lang.lisp,
Subject: Is using Emacs a good way to learn lisp?


|Common LISP: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation
|by Touretzky, David S.
|ISBN 13 9780486498201
|
|Practical Common Lisp
|by Peter Seibel
|ISBN 13 9781430242901
|
|I haven't read the first. I can recommend the second (for those with some |programming experience) although it uses LOOP too much for my taste and only |casually mentions the DEFSTRUCT functionality. '-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Spiros Bousbouras on 2022-01-29 19:20:29+00:00 in comp.lang.lisp,
Subject: Is using Emacs a good way to learn lisp?


|2 books to read absolutely to understand Lisp and its philosophy:
|Ansi Common Lisp
|On Lisp
|Both from Paul Graham. The second one is not printed anymore, but
|available at low cost from lulu.com '-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ST on 2022-11-22 06:54:33+00:00 in comp.lang.lisp,
Subject: Can someone help me fix a basic recursive function


|When I ventured out into Common Lisp some years back, I found
<Touretzky>
|a very nice read, with lots of small recursive exercises. '-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Axel Reichert on 2022-11-22 21:36:29+00:00 in comp.lang.lisp,
Subject: Can someone help me fix a basic recursive function

I searched around for subsets (not very fruitful), but I did happen to
find one quite interesting online textbook (apart from the usual
suspects), "Learn Lisp the hard way":

|It's an in-progress draft. It's looking pretty good. I don't even
|think a book to teach one how to use a language needs that much. But if
|the author has that much energy, I think it's useful. '----------------------------------------------------------------------- Julieta Shem on 2024-01-30 04:37:02+00:00 in comp.lang.lisp,
Subject: common lisp, the untold story


|Peter Seibel's ``Practical Common Lisp'' guides you with the GNU EMACS
|and SLIME. Chapter 2. I use the GNU EMACS and SLIME. It's wonderful. '----------------------------------------------------------------------- Julieta Shem on 2024-02-04 15:31:48+00:00 in comp.lang.lisp,
Subject: Learning the REPL


|- Common Lisp: An Interactive Approach <-novices
|- A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation <-advanced
|- Paradigms On Artifical Intelligence Programming <- almost expert '----------------------------------------------------------------------- usuario on 2024-10-03 21:05:02+00:00 in comp.lang.lisp,


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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

On Sa 21 Feb 2026 at 00:24, Stefan Ram wrote:

ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) wrote or quoted:

Some books come to mind, but I have not read any of them:

Here are quotations from this group from the years starting
with "202":

|El Fri, 25 Sep 2020 17:08:53 -0700 (PDT), Ishaan escribi||:

What tutorial are you following?

"Practical Common Lisp" by Peter Siebel. Are their any good alternatives |>to Emacs and lisp in a box that are easier to use? Thanks for the help! |That's a pretty good book, and Emacs with Slime is the best setup IMO, so '----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jos|- Manuel Garc|!a-Patos on 2020-09-26 12:58:32+00:00 in comp.lang.lisp, Subject: Lisp programming questions

|[_]-- try the
| Book-- Land Of Lisp
| which is very simple to start with
| and it makes a sequence of games
| working up to a webserver version of Dice Of Doom
| in CommonLisp
| it's written by a doctor of medicine apparently '----------------------------------------------------------------------- picoVerse on 2021-03-22 02:58:01+00:00 in comp.lang.lisp,
Subject: Lisp programming questions

|There are a number of introductory books that have been produced over the |years. It doesn't matter if some of them are years old, as Common Lisp hasn't
|changed in a while (although some libraries for doing things have). '-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Russ on 2022-01-26 20:28:48+00:00 in comp.lang.lisp,
Subject: Is using Emacs a good way to learn lisp?

|Common LISP: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation
|by Touretzky, David S.
|ISBN 13 9780486498201
|
|Practical Common Lisp
|by Peter Seibel
|ISBN 13 9781430242901
|
|I haven't read the first. I can recommend the second (for those with some |programming experience) although it uses LOOP too much for my taste and only |casually mentions the DEFSTRUCT functionality. '----------------------------------------------------------------------- Spiros Bousbouras on 2022-01-29 19:20:29+00:00 in comp.lang.lisp,
Subject: Is using Emacs a good way to learn lisp?

|2 books to read absolutely to understand Lisp and its philosophy:
|Ansi Common Lisp
|On Lisp
|Both from Paul Graham. The second one is not printed anymore, but
|available at low cost from lulu.com '-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ST on 2022-11-22 06:54:33+00:00 in comp.lang.lisp,
Subject: Can someone help me fix a basic recursive function

|When I ventured out into Common Lisp some years back, I found
<Touretzky>
|a very nice read, with lots of small recursive exercises. '-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Axel Reichert on 2022-11-22 21:36:29+00:00 in comp.lang.lisp,
Subject: Can someone help me fix a basic recursive function

I searched around for subsets (not very fruitful), but I did happen to find one quite interesting online textbook (apart from the usual suspects), "Learn Lisp the hard way":

|It's an in-progress draft. It's looking pretty good. I don't even
|think a book to teach one how to use a language needs that much. But if |the author has that much energy, I think it's useful. '----------------------------------------------------------------------- Julieta Shem on 2024-01-30 04:37:02+00:00 in comp.lang.lisp,
Subject: common lisp, the untold story

|Peter Seibel's ``Practical Common Lisp'' guides you with the GNU EMACS
|and SLIME. Chapter 2. I use the GNU EMACS and SLIME. It's wonderful. '----------------------------------------------------------------------- Julieta Shem on 2024-02-04 15:31:48+00:00 in comp.lang.lisp,
Subject: Learning the REPL

|- Common Lisp: An Interactive Approach <-novices
|- A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation <-advanced
|- Paradigms On Artifical Intelligence Programming <- almost expert '----------------------------------------------------------------------- usuario on 2024-10-03 21:05:02+00:00 in comp.lang.lisp,

All these books are good.
Let me add two additional ones:

'LISP, Lore, and Logic' by W. Richard Stark

'Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in
Common Lisp' by Peter Norvig
--
ceterum censeo redmondinem esse delendam
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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

Ben Bacarisse <ben@bsb.me.uk> writes:

Do you know *any* programming languages, and if so, which ones?

I use C as my primary language, I learnt it quite a long time ago. I
also used Bourne shell, awk, Plan 9's C, and some other whacky language.

Second, how much experience do you have and does any of that include
other flavours of Lisp?

I do know a tiny bit of Emacs Lisp, as I used Emacs a bit (a few weeks
or so), although I didn't configure anything.

Mainly just, making a function.

Finally, what do you want learn it for? It might just be for fun or
it might be because you have a very specific goal in mind for which
someone might have some specific recommendations.

Just for fun. It seems like a pretty interesting language.


thanks.

--
- mario
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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

I recommend that you start by installing GNU Emacs on your computer

I used Emacs a bit - just a few weeks. I'll install it again.

A place where you can start is with David S. TouretzkyrCOs book "COMMON
LISP: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation"

Thanks! I'll read the book. It seems pretty good.
--
- mario
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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

|El Fri, 25 Sep 2020 17:08:53 -0700 (PDT), Ishaan escribi||:
|[...]
|That's a pretty good book, and Emacs with Slime is the best setup IMO, so '-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I'll try Slime! It looks like a pretty complete environment.

|Peter Seibel's ``Practical Common Lisp'' guides you with the GNU EMACS
|and SLIME. Chapter 2. I use the GNU EMACS and SLIME. It's wonderful. '-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I'll look into ``Practical Common Lisp'', I guess many people recommend
it :P.
--
- mario
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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

I do know a tiny bit of Emacs Lisp, as I used Emacs a bit (a few weeks
or so), although I didn't configure anything.

Emacs comes with an "Introduction to Emacs Lisp" manual which might be
a good option as well. Emacs Lisp is a close cousin but it's not
Common-Lisp, tho, and that manual won't discuss anything vaguely
resembling CLOS.


=== Stefan
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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

On Sat, 21 Feb 2026 12:25:06 +0100, Mario Rosell wrote:

Just for fun. It seems like a pretty interesting language.

Lisp is a pretty interesting language, but it was never standardized
to the extent that we expect of languages today. Look at the Common
Lisp spec, and it still retains a lot of baggage to maintain
compatibility with obsolete OSes that simply donrCOt matter any more.

And also, which particular Lisp do you want to learn? There are a
number in common use today:

* In the rCLLisp-2rCY camp: Emacs Lisp, SBCL
* In the rCLLisp-1rCY camp: GNU Guile

And thatrCOs just what I think of as the most notable ones.
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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

And also, which particular Lisp do you want to learn? There are a
number in common use today:

* In the rCLLisp-2rCY camp: Emacs Lisp, SBCL
* In the rCLLisp-1rCY camp: GNU Guile

Lisp-2, I guess.
--
- mario
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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 01:08:39 +0100, Mario Rosell wrote:

And also, which particular Lisp do you want to learn? There are a
number in common use today:

* In the rCLLisp-2rCY camp: Emacs Lisp, SBCL
* In the rCLLisp-1rCY camp: GNU Guile

Lisp-2, I guess.

Both have their pros and cons. Maybe get some familiarity with both?
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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp


* Lawrence DrCOOliveiro <10ne2f3$1rkoi$1@dont-email.me> :

Lisp-2, I guess.

Both have their pros and cons. Maybe get some familiarity with both?

"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert
cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor
hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." (Rev. 3:15-16)


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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 10:59:22 +0530, Madhu wrote:

On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 04:59:15 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 01:08:39 +0100, Mario Rosell wrote:

Lisp-2, I guess.

Both have their pros and cons. Maybe get some familiarity with
both?

"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou
wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither
cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." (Rev. 3:15-16)

Hmm, not sure of that writerrCOs qualifications in Comp Sci. How about
this:

rCLTo someone with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.rCY
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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

Mario Rosell <mario@mariorosell.es> writes:

Hello everyone!

I want to learn Common Lisp, but I don't really know what resources to
use.

What did you all use to learn? Is that even relevant? Is this newsgroup active?

Thanks for everyone in advice

https://lisp-lang.org/books/

most people like graham. I personally like Norvig.

the introduction in emacs on emacs-lisp is actually very good! C-h i m
elisp (in emacs).

there is a printed manual somewhere. emacs is probably the best wy to
learn.


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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

On Tue, 31 Mar 2026 17:47:55 -0400, steve g wrote:

the introduction in emacs on emacs-lisp is actually very good! C-h i
m elisp (in emacs).

CTRL-H I is roughly equivalent to the rCLinforCY command; it shows you
every info file on your system.
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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

steve g <sgonedes1977@gmail.com> writes:

Mario Rosell <mario@mariorosell.es> writes:

Hello everyone!

I want to learn Common Lisp, but I don't really know what resources to
use.

What did you all use to learn? Is that even relevant? Is this newsgroup
active?

Thanks for everyone in advice

https://lisp-lang.org/books/

Oddly, this list does not include "COMMON LISP: A Gentle
Introduction to Symbolic Computation", by David
S. Touretzky, which the computer science department at
Carnegie Mellon University provides as a .pdf file:

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/book.pdf

And it does not include "COMMON LISP: An Interactive
Approach", by Stuart C. Shapiro, which the State University
of New York at Buffalo provides as a .pdf file:

https://cse.buffalo.edu/~shapiro/Commonlisp/commonLisp.pdf

most people like graham. I personally like Norvig.

the introduction in emacs on emacs-lisp is actually very good! C-h i m
elisp (in emacs).

1. C-h i m only works if you have not used C-h i for other
info documentation. It assumes that the info reader starts
in the directory. More generally, type C-h i followed by
rCydrCO (to go to the directory) and then rCymrCO to specify a menu
entry.

2. C-h i d m elisp would open the Emacs Lisp reference
manual, which is not the Introduction to Emacs Lisp. For
that, use C-h i d m, and then type Emacs Lisp Intro at the
"menu item:" prompt.
--
The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parliament of Birds.
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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

On 2026-02-20 16:53, Mario Rosell wrote:

Hello everyone!

I want to learn Common Lisp, but I don't really know what resources to
use.

What did you all use to learn? Is that even relevant? Is this newsgroup active?

Thanks for everyone in advice

Another great book is Mark Watson's _Loving Common Lisp, or the Savvy's Programmer's Secret Weapon_ (last updated April 22nd 2026!)
https://leanpub.com/lovinglisp


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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

On 2026-02-20 16:53, Mario Rosell wrote:

Hello everyone!

I want to learn Common Lisp, but I don't really know what resources to
use.

What did you all use to learn? Is that even relevant? Is this newsgroup active?

Thanks for everyone in advice

Another very good author is Mark Watson, with his excellent, and very
current book: Loving Common Lisp, or a Savvy's Programmer's Secret
Weapon' : https://leanpub.com/lovinglisp .
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

On 2026-02-20 16:53, Mario Rosell wrote:

Hello everyone!

I want to learn Common Lisp, but I don't really know what resources to
use.

What did you all use to learn? Is that even relevant? Is this newsgroup active?

Thanks for everyone in advice

Another very good author is Mark Watson, with his excellent, and very
current book: Loving Common Lisp, or a Savvy's Programmer's Secret
Weapon' : https://leanpub.com/lovinglisp
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2