[Tutor] Ooer, OT Lisp

[Danny Yoo]

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005, Bill Mill wrote:

> There is no "standard" implementation of lisp, so sockets and os access
> all vary by implementation. Furthermore, the docs are sketchy and hard
> to read with all of the lisps I've tried.

Hi Liam,

Scheme is a recent dialect of Lisp that seems to be well-regarded.
DrScheme is one of the very active implementations of Scheme:

    http://www.drscheme.org/

and has a comprehensive set of documentation:

    http://download.plt-scheme.org/doc/


> > 5) Are you able to point me towards a simplified explanation of how
> > the 'syntaxless' language can write programmes?

Brian mentioned one of my favorite books: "Structure and Interpretation of
Computer Programs":

    http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/

If you want to do a crash course into how Lisp-languages work, I can't
think of a faster way than to look at the first few pages of it.

    http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book-Z-H-10.html

pretty much shows the core of Lisp programs.  There's even a set of video
lectures from the SICP authors that's freely available:

    http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lectures/


The neat thing about Scheme is that, once you get beyond the syntax, it
starts to feel a bit like Python.  *grin* Perhaps that should be the other
way around.


Best of wishes to you!