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Land of Lisp: Learn to Program in Lisp, One Game at a Time! [Paperback]

Conrad Barski
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)

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Book Description

November 12, 2010 1593272812 978-1593272814 1

Lisp has been hailed as the world's most powerful programming language, but its cryptic syntax and academic reputation can be enough to scare off even experienced programmers. Those dark days are finally over—Land of Lisp brings the power of functional programming to the people!

With his brilliantly quirky comics and out-of-this-world games, longtime Lisper Conrad Barski teaches you the mysteries of Common Lisp. You'll start with the basics, like list manipulation, I/O, and recursion, then move on to more complex topics like macros, higher order programming, and domain-specific languages. Then, when your brain overheats, you can kick back with an action-packed comic book interlude!

Along the way you'll create (and play) games like Wizard Adventure, a text adventure with a whiskey-soaked twist, and Grand Theft Wumpus, the most violent version of Hunt the Wumpus the world has ever seen.

You'll learn to:

  • Master the quirks of Lisp's syntax and semantics
  • Write concise and elegant functional programs
  • Use macros, create domain-specific languages, and learn other advanced Lisp techniques
  • Create your own web server, and use it to play browser-based games
  • Put your Lisp skills to the test by writing brain-melting games like Dice of Doom and Orc Battle

With Land of Lisp, the power of functional programming is yours to wield.


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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Conrad Barski has an M.D. from the University of Miami, and nearly 20 years of programming experience. This includes a stint developing an obscure Atari Jaguar game, and working on many medical software projects. Barski is also an avid cartoonist, having created the popular alien Lisp mascot and many graphical tutorials. He currently develops cardiology software and lives in Washington, D.C.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 504 pages
  • Publisher: No Starch Press; 1 edition (November 12, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1593272812
  • ISBN-13: 978-1593272814
  • Product Dimensions: 7 x 1.3 x 9.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
76 of 77 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Eating parentheses for breakfast is delicious... and fun! November 23, 2010
By Fogus
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If for no other reason, you should buy Land of Lisp because of the extreme levels of unadulterated nerdery filling its pages. The price of the book is almost worth that very spectacle alone. However, as an added bonus the content of the book is top drawer. The first incarnation of Lisp was discovered by John McCarthy over 50 years ago, so it's difficult to imagine that a book on the subject bringing a fresh perspective, but Land of Lisp pulls it off in spades. The book manages to carve its own unique niche in the Lisp book landscape through a masterful blend of cartoons, game development examples, interesting prose, and a highly sharpened whit.

The author, Conrad Barski M.D., takes the reader through a whirlwind tour of Common Lisp and some of the fundamental principles of game development, but interestingly enough it never feels rushed. He accomplishes this feat by sticking to a very important strategy summarized as, "providing something useful at every stage". That is, every example in the book is meant to fit into the context of the larger game examples (e.g. a text adventure, Dice of Doom, etc.) while simultaneously teaching a lesson about Common Lisp *and* provide utility in isolation. It's really a thing of beauty the way that Mr. Barski manages to build useable games piecemeal while teaching important concepts along the way. To illustrate what I mean, let me give an example. The Dice of Doom game example starts with a very small 2x2 board and the program parts needed to represent it. Mr. Barski then builds pieces on top of this substrate to generate positions, while extolling the virtues of decoupling the logic of the game from its representation. It's at this point that the game is playable against a human opponent, but at no previous stage was the code left in a state of flux -- each one was fully amenable to tinkering, tweaking, and experimentation. As an added bonus, the whole implementation by this stage was an incredible 13 lines! (that is actually not true, it's more than that, but by using Common Lisp the implementation was incredibly concise) As if this feat was not impressive enough, Mr. Barski then adds game AI into the mix while explaining the famous minimax search algorithm. He then makes the game more efficient using some techniques common in functional programming, including: closures, memoization, tail-calls (with caveats), and lazy programming. As expected the game itself becomes more feature rich as these lessons progress as stronger AI (i.e. better evaluation) is added, more efficient search techniques are introduced (i.e. alpha-beta pruning), and heuristics are used.

All in all, I am very impressed with the quality of Land of Lisp. As a co-author of a Lisp programming book I appreciate the amount of effort required to pull off a genuinely unique book -- I would be happy to achieve a fraction of the quality of Land of Lisp. This book will appeal to the long-time Lisper and the neophyte and I highly recommend buying it today.
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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Good book but moves quickly April 17, 2011
By Dustin
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
As a person who doesn't know Lisp, I bought this book hoping it would be a good place to start learning, but I feel like a person should have some familiarity with Lisp before reading this. I'm 6 chapters in and the pacing seems weird. I flew through the first 3 or 4 chapters but around chapters 4 or 5 new concpets started getting introduced really quickly. Also, I wish there was more emphasis on where were going with the game when coding it. I feel a little lost while I'm writing the code. I've concluded that the best way to go through this book for me is to read each chapter, then read it again while working through the code. I guess I just need a little more hand holding then this book provides. It is funny, I love the cartoons and I think if someone had a little familiarity with Lisp it would be a great book for them. I'd also like to see programming challenges at the end of each chapter to help reinforce what was learned. At the end of the day this book isn't bad but I'd start with The Little Schemer (which I'm reading now and is awesome), then move onto one of the free Lisp books online, then read this.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Not since the long out of print "A Fortran Coloring Book" by Roger Kaufman and MIT Press has there been a programming language textbook that was this much fun :-) Lisp is a powerful, self-extensible language; it is the second oldest programming language in continuous use; its implementation was based on a 1958 mathematical paper by John McCarthy on the Lambda Calculus. It also for many years was the main language taught in MIT's basic course for Computer Science 6.001 the "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs".

While this book would be worth purchasing for the Nerdly Jokes and Comics by themselves, it is a full but easily paced treatment of a language that allowed the implementation of most Artificial Intelligence research. The easy, carefully designed pedagogy (teaching) follows the development of several entertaining and challenging games including 1980's style text adventures (like Zork and Adventure). But advanced topics are covered in some level of depth with examples including development of a HTTP server, a full chapter on Functional Programming, and another on LISP Macro's and the development of Domain-Specific Languages (DSL's). Some Artificial Intelligence methods such as MINIMAX are briefly covered in the game examples developed in this book. Reader's seeking some understanding of Functional Programing will achieve this understanding in a widely used and classic programming language rather than the more recent and arcane Haskell.

This is a fun and relatively easy ride through one of the oldest higher-level programming languages and one with considerable life still in it. It could form the basis of a child's early programming background or a comprehensive adult's introduction to a powerful Computer Science tool. It is the interesting project of an MD's interestingly twisted obsession and valuable to anyone interested in techniques of programming. A great read...

--Ira Laefsky, MSE/MBA
IT & HCI Researcher and Consultant formerly on the Senior Consulting Staff of Arthur D. Little, Inc. and Digital Equipment Corporation
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars I really enjoyed this book
Land of Lisp includes within it the same sense of quirky brilliance that you remember in your favorite computer science or physics gurus. Read more
Published 3 months ago by M. Helmke
5.0 out of 5 stars Well done in every way
This book provides an excellent way to learn Lisp programming. The game programming examples are much more interesting than I expected--brilliant and elegant introductions to... Read more
Published 3 months ago by James M Baker
5.0 out of 5 stars A treat for programmers, learners and readers!
When I mention Lisp to friends and colleagues, some dismiss it as a dead language from the AI bubble. They are mistaken. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Rick Goff
5.0 out of 5 stars Fun Intro To Common Lisp
This book is a really fun way to learn Lisp. In fact, it's one of the most entertaining programming books I have ever read. The examples are interesting enough to study. Read more
Published 5 months ago by David Clark
5.0 out of 5 stars A new land
This book came so fast I thought the neighbor brought it over instead of the mailman. It turns out it wasn't what I expected but it is still interesting and I will finish it. Read more
Published 7 months ago by PapaOfTwins
5.0 out of 5 stars This book is brilliant, and quite funny.
I have been a scheme programmer, off and on, for about 26 years, but hadn't lately used it. I bought this book to get a look at what may have changed in common lisp since I last... Read more
Published 7 months ago by john near the sea
5.0 out of 5 stars Simple but refined, guaranteed to blow you mind!
Awesome book, covers all the great things about the Common Lisp in a fun and easy way. You will learn a powerfull language without even realizing it, but the great thing it's not... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Roberto
4.0 out of 5 stars Beginning to sophisticated material quickly
I liked the book. It uses some simple little games as case studies / exercises to showcase various types of Lisp programming. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Morris Pearl
2.0 out of 5 stars Not a great start for beginners
It seems that the author glosses over important information. This is probably a good book, but it's not a beginner's book to learning lisp. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Kyle Sexton
5.0 out of 5 stars Paradigm of self-instruction
I once wanted to learn Lisp. I purchased the very, very good Patrick Winston's Lisp (3rd Edition), and learned a lot from it. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Frederico Lopes
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If you buy from the publisher they include the ebook PDF Be the first to reply
Which dialect of Lisp?
The book uses Common Lisp for its examples, though there are discussions of other dialects included as well. You can find out more here:

http://nostarch.com/lisp.htm
Jul 26, 2010 by Stephen D. |  See all 2 posts
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