ANSI Common Lisp (1995)

ANSI Common Lisp combines an introduction to Lisp programming, and a convenient, up-to-date reference manual for ANSI Common Lisp. Beginners will find that its careful explanations and interesting examples make Lisp programming easy to learn. Professional programmers will appreciate its thorough, practical approach.

Prentice Hall, 1995, 432 pages, paperback. ISBN 0133708756.

Buy at SoftPro (friends of mine and very reliable) or Amazon .

• An up-to-date reference manual for ANSI Common Lisp.
• An in-depth look at object-oriented programming. Explains the Common Lisp Object System (CLOS), and also shows how to write your own object-oriented language.
• Over 20 substantial examples, including programs for ray-tracing, text generation, pattern-matching, logical inference, generating HTML, sorting and searching, file I/O, compression, and date arithmetic.
• Special attention to critical concepts, including prefix syntax, code vs. data, recursion, functional programming, types, implicit pointers, dynamic allocation, closures, macros, class precedence, and generic functions vs. message-passing.
• A complete guide to optimization.
• The clearest and most thorough explanation of macros in any introductory book.
• Examples that illustrate Lisp programming styles, including rapid prototyping, bottom-up programming, object-oriented programming, and embedded languages.
• An appendix on debugging, with examples of common errors.

"A straightforward and well-written tutorial and reference to elementary and intermediate ANSI Common Lisp. It's more than just an introductory book-- because of its extensive reference section, it may be, for most readers, a useful alternative to Steele."

- Richard Fateman, University of California at Berkeley

"This book would be ideal for a classroom text. It is the only book up-to-date with respect to the ANSI standard."

- John Foderaro, Franz Inc.

"Paul Graham has done it again. His first book, On Lisp , provided an excellent description of some of the advanced features of Lisp while the present one provides a completely thorough introduction to the language, including such topics as tuning a program for speed."

- Thomas Cheatham, Harvard University

"The final chapter is brilliant. It simultaneously explains some of the key ideas behind object-oriented programming and takes the reader through several versions of an object-oriented system, each more sophisticated than the previous."

- David Touretzky, Carnegie-Mellon University

"Graham's well-known text On Lisp set a new standard for books on advanced Lisp programming. With ANSI Common Lisp he has provided the ideal introductory text--a compact tutorial and a complete reference on the latest standard. This book would be excellent either for a standalone Lisp or functional programming course or for courses on AI, compilers, or object-oriented programming that use Lisp. I will certainly be using it in my courses, and my students will be happy that they no longer have to buy both a Lisp text and Steele's reference. I would also recommend it highly to programmers wishing to move into the Lisp language. The style is intelligent and lively, the examples are interesting and well-chosen, and the standard of explanation is impeccable."

- Stuart Russell, University of California at Berkeley

"The book's clear and engaging format explains complicated constructs simply. This format makes ANSI Common Lisp accessible to a general audience--even those who have never programmed before."

- Amazon.Com