2.6.3 Common Lisp Books
If you're not a programmer and you're trying to learn, many
introductory Lisp books are available. However, we don't have any
standout favorites. If you can't decide, try checking the Usenet
news://comp.lang.lisp FAQ for recent recommendations.
If you are an experienced programmer in other languages but need to
learn about Common Lisp, some books stand out:
- Practical Common Lisp, by Peter Seibel
- An excellent introduction to the language, covering both the basics
and “advanced topics” like macros, CLOS, and packages. Available
both in print format and on the web: http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/.
- Paradigms Of Artificial Intelligence Programming, by Peter Norvig
- Good information on general Common Lisp programming, and many
nontrivial examples. Whether or not your work is AI, it's a very good
book to look at.
- On Lisp, by Paul Graham
- An in-depth treatment of macros, but not recommended as a first Common
Lisp book, since it is slightly pre-ANSI so you need to be on your
guard against non-standard usages, and since it doesn't really even
try to cover the language as a whole, focusing solely on macros.
Downloadable from http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html.
- Object-Oriented Programming In Common Lisp, by Sonya Keene
- With the exception of Practical Common Lisp most introductory
books don't emphasize CLOS. This one does. Even if you're very
knowledgeable about object oriented programming in the abstract, it's
worth looking at this book if you want to do any OO in Common Lisp.
Some abstractions in CLOS (especially multiple dispatch) go beyond
anything you'll see in most OO systems, and there are a number of
lesser differences as well. This book tends to help with the culture
shock.
- Art Of Metaobject Programming, by Gregor Kiczales et al.
- Currently to prime source of information on the Common Lisp Metaobject
Protocol, which is supported by SBCL. Section 2 (Chapers 5 and 6) are
freely available at http://www.lisp.org/mop/.