Successful Lisp: How to Understand and Use Common Lisp [Paperback]

David B. Lamkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 8, 2004

This tutorial is written with the professional programmer in mind. Using a hands on approach it introduces the ANSI Common Lisp standard. Practical examples of working code provide an in depth view of Common Lisp programming paradigms. David B. Lamkins explains why this programming language is by far the most powerful industrial strength tool available for advanced software development.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The content of this book has been available online for many years. The content of this print edition has been updated by the author and all changes have been rolled back into the online version of the book.

From the Author

A few of the more enthusiastic readers even compared "Successful Lisp" to a couple of my favorite Lisp texts. While I'll admit to having my spirits buoyed by such unabashed enthusiam, I'll also be the first to point out that "Successful Lisp" attempts to cover the subject in a somewhat different manner, and at different levels of detail, than the other available texts. By all means, enjoy this book. But when you need more information than I've been able to fit in this limited space, please turn to some of the other fine books listed in the Bibliography.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: bookfix.com (December 8, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3937526005
• ISBN-13: 978-3937526003
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #290,856 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #14 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > Lisp

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent survey, January 13, 2005

By 

C. G. Petrilli (Arlington, VA (USA)) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Successful Lisp: How to Understand and Use Common Lisp (Paperback)

First, this is most emphatically, not a book for beginners. There's an assumption that you are already familiar with programming ideas at a reasonably high level. If you know Python well, or Perl+OO, or C++ or Java, you're probably going to be able to work through it. If you've only used VisualBasic, you might be hurting. That's fine with me, it meant I could ready every chapter, and not skip the "boring stuff," which potentially would mean I'd lose little tidbits of insight.

Overall, I found the book a good survey of the language, presented in an excellent order. I do wish there had been a "project" attached, as it really only gives you the flavor of the language. I feel like I could read most Lisp code now and understand it, but I'm not sure that I could structure and write an application quite yet. The content, for what its goals are, is good, unfortunately it falls short of giving a programmer a full taste of large Lisp programs, and honestly, if you're writing 10 line programs, why use Lisp?

Also, as the book goes on, and perhaps this is more organizational than a sign of anything, the chapters seem to get shorter and shorter, until they are nearly tiny. Perhaps some could be combined together, but I get the distinct impression that the author simply got tired and didn't put in everything that he could have at the end. Perhaps a second edition could tackle a project in the last few chapters, integrating the more advanced concepts into the issues addressed by an application. This would move the book way up in usefulness for me.

Please don't take some of these criticisms as invalidating the book, as it's excellent writing for what it is trying to accomplish. I only wish it was trying to accomplish more. It provided me with the background to grok code that other people have written, and begin to explore writing my own. Unfortunately, it ignores some of the big huge issues (like ASDF) that become major issues. Now I feel ready to tackle my own code.

Overall, I'd give the book a B+. What it's missing is that "thread" that ties everything together, which for a programming book, is often an application.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Glowing Review, April 5, 2008

By 

B. C Ladd "programming pedant" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Successful Lisp: How to Understand and Use Common Lisp (Paperback)

Another Lisp geek heard from. I used this book in a Programming Languages course I taught (SUNY Potsdam, Spring 2008) and I loved it. Students learned Common Lisp from class lectures and this book and, given that they are successfully writing Lisp interpreters, they were well able to do so. The book begins with an introduction (Chapter 3, alone, is worth its weight in gold) and then moves on to advanced topics including compiling and memory management inside the Lisp system. Wade Hennessey's Common Lisp has more detail on the internals but this book is much more accessible.

The writing isn't perfect and the motivation for all the powerful techniques provided by Common Lisp is sometimes thin. As a text book, the lack of problems can, itself, be a problem. But for learning Common Lisp, this book is both fun and, over all, successful.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but you'll need more, July 12, 2007

By 

W. Ghost (Brazil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Successful Lisp: How to Understand and Use Common Lisp (Paperback)

This is a nice book. Not a good introduction to programming, but a good introduction to Lisp. The text is clear, and covers the basics of Lisp. You'll still need other books for advanced techniques, though (check paul Graham's On LISP: Advanced Techniques for Common LISP).