I was going to give you my specific recommendations, but you could start by visiting the web site of the Association of Lisp Users web site, www.alu.org. Much will depend on your son's interests and goals. I can't help recommending Practical Common Lisp, though. It's a great book, and the title fits. You can get it for free online. Laughing Water On Jun 29, 2009, at 10:55 PM, Malathion Merkin wrote: > Hi folks, > > My home-schooled son is teaching himself Lisp from Touretzky's > Common Lisp. Not a bad book, as far as I can tell, and he's already > about 120 pages into it. But I'm wondering if the list has > recommendations for other introductory Lisp books . . . bearing in > mind that neither he nor I have any background in programming. > > thanks, > > Doug Hoffman
It is a fairly dated, but not a bad book per se to get started
with (assuming you meant the book titled: “Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction
To Symbolic Computation”).
What grade level is your son at? If he has enough algebra under
his belt, then it should be fine. My eleven-year old is just starting 8th
grade Algebra, but I think Lisp programming is a bit beyond him right now,
although he is learning to program in Basic (using Microsoft Visual Basic
Express).
Also, if you all are just starting to learn about these kinds of
languages, you *may* find that starting with Scheme rather than Lisp is better
for learning. Free Scheme implementations exist for PC’s and the book “Programming
in Scheme” by Abelson and Sussman is very good.
These are just my opinions, of course. J
Z
From:
owner-lisp-hug@lispworks.com [mailto:owner-lisp-hug@lispworks.com] On Behalf
Of Malathion Merkin
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 9:55 PM
To: lisp-hug@lispworks.com
Subject: recs for introductory text?
Hi folks,
My home-schooled son is teaching himself Lisp from Touretzky's Common Lisp. Not
a bad book, as far as I can tell, and he's already about 120 pages into it. But
I'm wondering if the list has recommendations for other introductory Lisp books
.. . . bearing in mind that neither he nor I have any background in programming.
thanks,
Doug Hoffman
I think the book “LISP” (3rd
Edition?) by P.H. Winston and B.K.P. Horn is a good one start with.
Regards,
Rangarajan
From:
owner-lisp-hug@lispworks.com [mailto:owner-lisp-hug@lispworks.com] On Behalf Of Syed.Hosain@aeris.net
Sent: 30 June 2009 11:00
To: Malathion Merkin;
lisp-hug@lispworks.com
Subject: RE: recs for introductory
text?
It is a fairly
dated, but not a bad book per se to get started with (assuming you meant the
book titled: “Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction To Symbolic
Computation”).
What grade level is
your son at? If he has enough algebra under his belt, then it should be fine.
My eleven-year old is just starting 8th grade Algebra, but I think
Lisp programming is a bit beyond him right now, although he is learning to
program in Basic (using Microsoft Visual Basic Express).
Also, if you all are
just starting to learn about these kinds of languages, you *may* find that starting with Scheme rather
than Lisp is better for learning. Free Scheme implementations exist for
PC’s and the book “Programming in Scheme” by Abelson and Sussman
is very good.
These are just my
opinions, of course. J
Z
From:
owner-lisp-hug@lispworks.com [mailto:owner-lisp-hug@lispworks.com] On Behalf Of Malathion Merkin
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 9:55
PM
To: lisp-hug@lispworks.com
Subject: recs for introductory
text?
Hi folks,
My home-schooled son is teaching himself Lisp from Touretzky's Common Lisp. Not
a bad book, as far as I can tell, and he's already about 120 pages into it. But
I'm wondering if the list has recommendations for other introductory Lisp books
.. . . bearing in mind that neither he nor I have any background in programming.
thanks,
Doug Hoffman
I think the book “LISP” (3rd Edition?) by P.H. Winston and B.K.P. Horn is a good one start with.
Regards,
Rangarajan
From: owner-lisp-hug@lispworks.com [mailto:owner-lisp-hug@lispworks.com] On Behalf Of Syed.Hosain@aeris.net
Sent: 30 June 2009 11:00
To: Malathion Merkin; lisp-hug@lispworks.com
Subject: RE: recs for introductory text?
It is a fairly dated, but not a bad book per se to get started with (assuming you meant the book titled: “Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction To Symbolic Computation”).
What grade level is your son at? If he has enough algebra under his belt, then it should be fine. My eleven-year old is just starting 8th grade Algebra, but I think Lisp programming is a bit beyond him right now, although he is learning to program in Basic (using Microsoft Visual Basic Express).
Also, if you all are just starting to learn about these kinds of languages, you *may* find that starting with Scheme rather than Lisp is better for learning. Free Scheme implementations exist for PC’s and the book “Programming in Scheme” by Abelson and Sussman is very good.
These are just my opinions, of course. J
Z
From: owner-lisp-hug@lispworks.com [mailto:owner-lisp-hug@lispworks.com] On Behalf Of Malathion Merkin
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 9:55 PM
To: lisp-hug@lispworks.com
Subject: recs for introductory text?
Hi folks,
My home-schooled son is teaching himself Lisp from Touretzky's Common Lisp. Not a bad book, as far as I can tell, and he's already about 120 pages into it. But I'm wondering if the list has recommendations for other introductory Lisp books .. . . bearing in mind that neither he nor I have any background in programming.
thanks,
Doug Hoffman
The best and most modern book I've read on Lisp, by far is "On Lisp" by Paul Graham.He succinctly introduces Lisp for beginners. It's a great intro. But his explanations are so wise and pithy theycontain considerable value for experts. I myself was able to reverse years of C and Fortranaccented coding habits, which increased my productivity 10x.Best of all, it's now online for free at:Lawrence AuOn Jun 30, 2009, at 12:06 PM, Malathion Merkin wrote:Thanks, everyone.
My son's entering ninth grade, but he's finishing up Algebra 2, ready to start trigonometry. Pretty good at logical thinking -- he's taking to Lisp quite well, as far as I can tell.
The book we're using is indeed the "gentle introduction." Not bad, but some of the explanations are confusing, so that's why I was hoping for another option if we get stuck with this one.
Thank you again,
DougOn Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 10:41 PM, Rangarajan Krishnamoorthy <ranga@mmsindia.com> wrote:I think the book “LISP” (3rd Edition?) by P.H. Winston and B.K.P. Horn is a good one start with.
Regards,
Rangarajan
From: owner-lisp-hug@lispworks.com [mailto:owner-lisp-hug@lispworks.com] On Behalf Of Syed.Hosain@aeris.net
Sent: 30 June 2009 11:00
To: Malathion Merkin; lisp-hug@lispworks.com
Subject: RE: recs for introductory text?
It is a fairly dated, but not a bad book per se to get started with (assuming you meant the book titled: “Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction To Symbolic Computation”).
What grade level is your son at? If he has enough algebra under his belt, then it should be fine. My eleven-year old is just starting 8th grade Algebra, but I think Lisp programming is a bit beyond him right now, although he is learning to program in Basic (using Microsoft Visual Basic Express).
Also, if you all are just starting to learn about these kinds of languages, you *may* find that starting with Scheme rather than Lisp is better for learning. Free Scheme implementations exist for PC’s and the book “Programming in Scheme” by Abelson and Sussman is very good.
These are just my opinions, of course. J
Z
From: owner-lisp-hug@lispworks.com [mailto:owner-lisp-hug@lispworks.com] On Behalf Of Malathion Merkin
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 9:55 PM
To: lisp-hug@lispworks.com
Subject: recs for introductory text?Hi folks,
My home-schooled son is teaching himself Lisp from Touretzky's Common Lisp. Not a bad book, as far as I can tell, and he's already about 120 pages into it. But I'm wondering if the list has recommendations for other introductory Lisp books . . . bearing in mind that neither he nor I have any background in programming.
thanks,
Doug Hoffman
Malathion Merkin <malmerkin <at> gmail.com> writes: I went over this: http://www.lisperati.com/casting.html with my son, who was 8 at the time and is also Home schooled. We had a lot of fun working though it together and he understood it rather well. However as mentioned by earlier posters, "Practical Common Lisp" and "On Lisp" are both really good. William
Malathion Merkin <malmerkin@gmail.com> writes: One of my continuing favourites is Stephen Slade's "Object Oriented Common Lisp" (1997). Though CLOS gets treatment, this book offers detailed coverage of language features, with exercises and daubs of humour throughout. B. Connoy
On Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:52:43 +0200, jerome lesueur <smalllotus@noos.fr> writes: > what do you think of "Guy Steele : common lisp : the language" second edition ? It is a reference manual, most beginners find it incomprehensible, and it does not correspond to any actual version of the Common Lisp language. Other than that, it's great! (I love my copy.)
On Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:40:43 -0600, Syed.Hosain@aeris.net <Syed.Hosain@aeris.net> writes: > > Jerome lesueur <smalllotus@noos.fr> writes: > > > what do you think of "Guy Steele : common lisp : the language" > second edition ? > Useful for gaining clarity when there is confusion about a particular topic But the HyperSpec (online reference) is better for clarifying finer points, because it corresponds to ANSI Common Lisp. (While CLtL2 does not.)
My vote goes to Winston and Horn, lot of examples and code throughout the text. Also, that is one from which I learned it. It is good to learn what is available and capabilities of lisp Steele's book CLtL is good reference.. I use it when I know that something is possible, but I forgot details of implementation, and all function parameters. Dusan Sormaz Malathion Merkin wrote: > Hi folks, > > My home-schooled son is teaching himself Lisp from Touretzky's Common > Lisp. Not a bad book, as far as I can tell, and he's already about 120 > pages into it. But I'm wondering if the list has recommendations for > other introductory Lisp books . . . bearing in mind that neither he > nor I have any background in programming. > > thanks, > > Doug Hoffman -- *************************************************** * Dusan Sormaz, PhD, Associate Professor * Ohio University * Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering * 284 Stocker Center, Athens, OH 45701-2979 * phone: (740) 593-1545 * fax: (740) 593-0778 * e-mail: sormaz@ohio.edu * url: http://www.ent.ohiou.edu/~sormaz ***************************************************