Learning a Lisp

So I'd like to learn a Lisp. What dialect should I use? I believe Common Lisp is the most widely used one. And what about books, online tutorials?

DON'T HELP HIM.

Introductory:
Practical Common Lisp - http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/
ANSI CL - another introductory CL book
Keene's Oriented Programming in Common Lisp - Introductory CLOS book
Intermediary-Advanced:
PAIP - a rather good book as well, but I don't know if it should be one's first CL book.
On Lisp - more advanced macros
AMOP - If you want to understand how to implement CLOS in CLOS, as well as learn about the MOP.
Hyperspec - the actual spec, use it with SLIME's documentation lookup

You may also want to read SICP eventually, if you haven't already.

Aside from that, you should set up Emacs, SLIME, maybe Paredit and Redshank, and a decent CL implementation (SBCL or Clozure CL would be good choices, but if you don't like Emacs, you could try going for the commercial ones like Allegro CL or Lispworks).

I can't even tell if this is a troll. Sad state of affairs, /prog/.

>>4
What, why? I'm polite and all.

>>5
Because http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/

>>6
But everyone knows that SICP is about spells in general and not Scheme.

Also, if you've never programmed before, there's another book you might want to consider:
Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/
Altough, SICP fits that role rather nicely as well.

If you find the Hyperspec too dense to use a reference, ClTL2 ( http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Groups/AI/html/cltl/cltl2.html ) is also a good reference, except that it's not 100% identical to ANSI CL(it's based on an earlier snapshot of the language, but with a few exceptions, most things still apply).

>>8
Nah, I've programmed quite a bit already, though I still don't really know a dialect of Lisp (aside from the little Scheme I've picked up from reading SICP).

aside from the little Scheme I've picked up from reading SICP
Depending on how much of SICP you've read, there isn't much more to know.

Keene's Oriented Programming in Common Lisp - Introductory CLOS book
You know, I never did thank the /prog/rider who recommended that to me.

Scheme is the best Lisp to learn first as its very simple. The best book to learn Scheme is "Simply Scheme" which is for people who dont have the college math background that is needed for SICP. Simply Scheme uses some syntax add-ons from the Logo language (another Lisp dialect).

>>12
Simply Scheme uses some syntax add-ons from the Logo language
WTF?

>>13
what do you mean wtf? all syntax in Lisp is nothing more than Lisp functions, adding syntax to Lisp is nothing more than loading a file of functions.
http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~scheme/

>>14
Both Scheme and CL have special operators and macros(although of different kinds) besides functions. CL also has reader macros which can be used to extend readable syntax (and it's usually how syntax is defined in many implementations, as it fits naturally into the reader). So no, Lisp isn't ``just'' functions. Of course, defining a Lisp in the form of another Lisp is usually possible and not hard(with the exception of some brain-dead lisps that nobody heard of).

>>14
Adding syntax to Scheme somewhat defeats the original purpose of using Scheme, does it not?

>>16
The syntax it adds is simpler, for example it adds "sentence" as a replacement for cons. sentence is simpler because it doesnt allow nested lists. Logo was orginally designed to teach children to program.

In fact I would recommend Logo as a first Lisp for teens to learn, and the author who wrote Simply Scheme also wrote books for teaching Logo which he gives away for free here:
http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~bh/logo.html

learn gay lisp.

>>17
it adds "sentence" as a replacement for cons.
Sentenced to 20 garbage collections in a cons cell, oh no!

>>19
This should go in the ``bad puns'' thread.

>>19
I laughed aloud.

>>18
U MENA BEE LISP?

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

*the tube intro*

I thought only queers talked with a lisp? Why would you want one of those?

>>24
Contrary to popular belief, speech impediments are not indicative of homosexuality.

>>26
Mat Dickie Quality