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On Lisp by Paul Graham
This is extremely useful for somebody who knows something about Lisp
and wants to learn how to use it effectively. Graham argues forcefully
for what he calls "bottom-up" programming, which consists of tailoring
the language to suit the problem. He gives numerous examples, many of
which are very useful in their own right. Many people consider Lisp
macros to be tremendously useful, but few books explain them. This is
one of the differences, as over half the book discusses what macros
can do and how to do that. Paul Graham has also written a more
introductory book with a useful reference section,
Ansi Common Lisp.
Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common
Lisp by Peter Norvig
Norvig starts with a quick introduction to Lisp, although this won't
be very useful to a true beginner, and dives in to more and more
advanced stuff. Most of the chapters discuss how to write good, solid
Lisp applications, starting with the general idea and proceeding through
the design and programming process, from the first iffy steps to solid,
efficient, production-quality code.
This book teaches at least three things: how to write commercial-quality Lisp applications, how to write good software from basic ideas, and many topics in artificial intelligence. As the author says, it's a bit dated on AI, but I've never seen anything like it on writing industrial-strength Lisp programs.
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs by Abelson and
Sussman
This book uses Scheme rather than Common Lisp, and its purpose is
to explain computer science rather than any sort of computer language.
It succeeds in being by far the best introduction to computer science
I have ever seen, and in addition shows how to use Scheme to do
many different things. I strongly recommend it as an introductory
book for computer scientists (or an advanced book for people in
general). Working through it is slow, as it is dense with ideas and
knowledge. It teaches computer science primarily, but through the
lens of functional programming. Most people outside the CS field
are not familiar with functional programming, and anybody inside it
certainly should learn it.
All contents of these pages Copyright 1997 by David H. Thornley.