Lisp [Paperback]

Patrick Henry Winston (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley (1981)
• ASIN: B000YZ282Y
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Old but still very good, July 9, 2003

By 

James Arvo (Pasadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lisp (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

Winston and Horn's "Lisp" is an old chestnut. It has stuck around, undergone several editions, and remains in print for a reason; it's a very clear and thorough introduction to programming in Lisp (and, beginning with the 2nd edition, it is specifically about Common Lisp, the most widely adopted dialect of Lisp). In fact, it's probably the best introduction to Lisp there is; yet it's not the right book for every beginning Lisp programmer.

This book is apparently intended for programmers who are not only new to Lisp, but fairly new to programming in general. Consequently, it would not be the ideal book for a seasoned programmer who already knows multiple languages and simply wants to learn one more. I suspect that such a person would find this book a bit on the pedantic side, as it covers basic concepts at length. A better place to start for experienced programmers would probably be Paul Graham's fine book "ANSI Common Lisp", or perhaps even, "Lisp in Small Pieces" by Christian Queinnec, which covers interpreters and compilers in addition to Lisp programming. If you are looking for a very complete reference on Common Lisp (as opposed to Scheme), then Guy Steele's book "Common Lisp, The Language" is the right choice; it's another old chestnut. Finally, if you are not set on Common Lisp, you may want to consider "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs", by Abelson, Sussman, and Sussman, which is a Scheme classic.

Winston & Horn's book has some very nice features. It not only covers all the basics, it also covers CLOS, the "Common Lisp Object System", which is to Common Lisp what C++ is to C; that is, it is an addition to Common Lisp (essentially a "layer") that allows the programmer to define classes, sub-classes (with inheritance), and methods. In my opinion, CLOS is by far the most compelling reason to use Common Lisp rather than Scheme. Winston & Horn also do an admirable job of explaining both "lexical" and "dynamic" scoping, with the former being the most important. In fact, it is essential to understand "lexical closures" before one can write effective Lisp programs, which is why Winston & Horn devote so much attention to them, even developing a kind of graphical representation for them.

Over all, this is a fine introduction to Common Lisp, and programming in general. It's an oldie but a goodie.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Up and down, August 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lisp (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

For a beginner, the first 15 or so chapters of this book are a good introduction to Common Lisp. After that, however, it shifts gears and turns into an AI book that uses Lisp. Perhaps this is not surprising since it was written by two gents from MIT's famed AI Lab, but I was interested in learning Lisp, not AI. I really think that the last half should have focused on the parts of CL that were skipped in the begining.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for learning, not for reference, August 23, 1998

By 

Tony Pittarese (northeast Tennessee) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lisp (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

This is a good book to use if this is your first introduction to programming in LISP. Although some of the examples are a bit elementary, it is a good introduction to the language. The most frustrating thing is trying to use the book as a reference. The index is poor and due to the book's organization it makes looking up things a nightmare. If you're going to buy this book, buy a good reference book to go with it.