Written by a Lisp expert, this is the most comprehensive tutorial on the advanced features of Lisp for experienced programmers. It shows how to program in the bottom-up style that is ideal for Lisp programming, and includes a unique, practical collection of Lisp programming techniques that shows how to take advantage of the language's design for efficient programming in a wide variety of applications.
New! Introducing the tech.book(store), a hub for Software Developers and Architects, Networking Administrators, TPMs, and other technology professionals to find highly-rated and highly-relevant career resources. Shop books on programming and big data, or read this week's blog posts by authors and thought-leaders in the tech industry. > Shop now |
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Perhaps the author gives the best description of this book: "On Lisp deals mostly with the kinds of programs you could only write in Lisp." The book provides extensive information on the advanced features of Lisp, which are not found in other popular programming languages. After showing how flexibly functions can be manipulated, On Lisp moves on to the best discussion of macros available, which includes details of the possible pitfalls (various referential bugs, for example). The book concludes with a demonstration of various advanced constructs that can be implemented in Lisp using the tools developed in the earlier part of the book. As with his other book, ANSI Common Lisp, Graham writes in a fluid style that is a pleasure to read.
From the Publisher
Written by a LISP expert, this is the most comprehensive tutorial available on the advanced LISP features and programming techniques. It shows how to program in the bottom-up style that is ideal for LISP programming, and includes a unique, practical collection of LISP programming techniques that shows how to take advantage of the language's design for highly efficient programming in a wide variety of (non-artificial intelligence) applications.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
128 of 129 people found the following review helpful
By Peter Norvig
Format:Perfect Paperback
When I find something really interesting in a book that I want to remember later, I write the page number on the end page. A good book might get 5 to 10 page numbers so noted. My copy of On Lisp has 25. Now, not every one of the 25 contains something I agree completely with, but they all made me think. If you're experienced at Lisp, you'll find a similar number of thought-provoking ideas, and if you're new to Lisp, you'll find a whole new way of looking at programming (and you'll find that you can apply the new ideas to other languages as well).
Looking at Graham's code felt like reading my own code masterfully translated, say, from Danish to Swedish. A lot of the ideas are the same, some of the old friends had new names, and there were some new friends that I had never bothered to abstract and name, but recognized instantly once Graham did so (e.g. mapcars, fn).
Along with the ideas, I admire the many handy turns of phrase that make the book a real page-turner:
"It used to be thought that you could judge someone's character by looking at the shape of his head. Whether or not this is true for people, it is generally true of Lisp programs."
"The classic Common Lisp defmacro is like a cook's knife: an elegant idea which seems dangerous, but which experts use with confidence."
"Lisp is not inherently about processing lists any more than Polo shirts are for Polo" (Note that the sentence would have been a little confusing if Graham had written "list processing" rather than "processing lists". In Graham's prose, like his code, every word counts. Time and again I can only say "I wish I had thought of that.")
91 of 92 people found the following review helpful
Format:Perfect Paperback
Go to paul graham's website and download this book for free now. You'll be happy you did.
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Perfect Paperback
There are dozens of programming texts that I recommend to people who want to understand various topics. There are only a small handful that I recommend to programmers who aren't using the tool or language that the book covers. This is one of those books. It requires a prior knowledge of Lisp, but not expert knowledge. Paul Graham rewards his readers with a much deeper understanding of the merits of Lisp and how to take advantage of the power it provides.
Paul Graham has commented on his web site ..., "It seems to me that there have been two really clean, consistent models of programming so far: the C model and the Lisp model. These two seem points of high ground, with swampy lowlands between them. As computers have grown more powerful, the new languages being developed have been moving steadily toward the Lisp model." I read that comment before I read On Lisp. It was fresh in my mind at the time, and I saw some of the features of Lisp in C++ and Java. Graham cites runtime type checking and garbage collection, but there are subtler features that appear in the C++ STL. When he described using macros to create functions as needed, his examples immediately brought to mind some of the templates for various "helper" classes; pair, for example. But he could equally well be talking about some of the classes in the Java runtime that are designed to be derived from. The bottom line is that this book is an excellent tutorial on good library design. It teaches by example the philosophy behind creating libraries that extend your language, either in general ways or specifically for the problem domain.
Paul Graham handles Lisp lovingly as an expert craftsman. An observant reader can learn a great deal about craftsmanship from his book. Eric Raymond stated in his essay How To Become A Hacker, "LISP is worth learning for a different reason - the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it. That experience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually use LISP itself a lot." Mr. Graham has commented about this specific quote wondering why anyone would learn about a great tool and then not use it. Lisp in general and this book specifically are an answer to that question. Lisp is not a single language. It is a family of languages that share a common philosophy and a core. Once you learn what gives Lisp its power, you can choose to enhance any tools you use with some measure of that power.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
'Every word counts'
I don't have much to say except that there are very few programming books that reach this level of authority and clarity. Read more
Published 1 month ago by candid_review
1.0 out of 5 stars
don't bother buying
you can get it here:
paulgraham [dot] com [slash] onlisptext.html
paul graham owns the copyright and links to it on his website. Read more
paulgraham [dot] com [slash] onlisptext.html
paul graham owns the copyright and links to it on his website. Read more
Published 2 months ago by R. Abdel-azim
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, but not your first Lisp book
This book is fantastic.
Paul Graham shows a lot of great programming techniques for Lisp. If you learnt Lisp in a short course as an undergrad, or if you played a bit with it... Read more
Paul Graham shows a lot of great programming techniques for Lisp. If you learnt Lisp in a short course as an undergrad, or if you played a bit with it... Read more
Published on June 5, 2007 by W. Ghost
5.0 out of 5 stars
How I Became a Better Perl Programmer
I've been programming Perl for over 10 years. I started to read On Lisp recently (though I've had to stop for a few weeks while I finish an "emergency" project) and the book has... Read more
Published on July 16, 2006 by D. Cameron
2.0 out of 5 stars
Sloppy code, poor writing.
First time I read it I couldn't understand much past the beginning tutorial chapters on macros. After going through a lot of other stuff and learning Scheme and Prolog on the way,... Read more
Published on February 19, 2006 by autodidact
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, but hard to find
This is an excellent book, and if you understand it it will make you a better lisp programmer. See the other reviews here or search through the comp.lang. Read more
Published on February 3, 2002
5.0 out of 5 stars
I read it twice
This is the only technical book I've read cover-to-cover *twice*. As others have noted, the author treats macros in *far* greater detail than any other books on Lisp. Read more
Published on May 30, 2000
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perhaps the best book ever on bottom-up programming
...
It is a really great book on Lisp and the concept of bottom-up programming. Instead of directly programming in your favoriate (or required) programming language, you should... Read more
Published on April 8, 2000 by Stephen W. Strom
5.0 out of 5 stars
How to "Think Lisp"
One problem with Lisp novices is that they generally try to treat Lisp like ALGOL or C; but while Lisp is, technically, an imperative language, it is best used as a functional (and... Read more
Published on April 5, 2000 by Bradford W. Miller
5.0 out of 5 stars
Impressed
Finally I found out why people like Stallman consider Lisp the most 'powerful' language in existence. Read more
Published on April 4, 2000 by cal
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
