ANSI Common LISP

Description

For use as a core text supplement in any course covering common LISP such as Artificial Intelligence or Concepts of Programming Languages.

Teaching students new and more powerful ways of thinking about programs, this text contains a tutorial—full of examples—that explains all the essential concepts of Lisp programming, plus an up- to-date summary of ANSI Common Lisp, listing every operator in the language. Informative and fun, it gives students everything they need to start writing programs in Lisp both efficiently and effectively, and highlights such innovative Lisp features as automatic memory management, manifest typing, closures, and more.

Contents


1. Introduction.


2. Welcome to Lisp.


3. Lists.


4. Specialized Data Structures.


5. Control.


6. Functions.


7. Input and Output.


8. Symbols.


9. Numbers.


10. Macros.


11. CLOS.


12. Structure.


13. Speed.


14. Advanced Topics.


15. Example: Inference.


16. Example: Generating HTML.


17. Example: Objects.


Appendices.


Notes.


Index.

Features

• this highly accessible presentation of LISP is the most comprehensive introduction to common LISP available.

• divides material into two parts; the tutorial half of the book:

  • covers subject-by-subject the essential core of Common Lisp.

  • sums up lessons of preceding chapters in two examples of real applications: a backward- chainer, and an embedded language for object-oriented programming.

• an outstanding reference consisting of three appendices, the summary half of the text:

  • gives source code for a widely used Common Lisp operators, with definitions that offer a comprehensive explanation of the language and provide a rich source of real examples.

  • summarizes differences between ANSI Common Lisp and Common Lisp as it was originally defined in 1984.

  • contains a concise description of every function, macro, and special operator in ANSI Common Lisp.

• concludes with a section of notes containing clarifications, references, and additional code.