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From: jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton)
Subject: Re: Why do people like C? (Was: Comparison: Beta - Lisp)
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References: <782421305snz@wildcard.demon.co.uk> <Cy1E9K.47F@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> <783017794snz@wildcard.demon.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 1994 18:04:02 GMT
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In article <783017794snz@wildcard.demon.co.uk> cyber_surfer@wildcard.demon.co.uk writes:
>In article <Cy1E9K.47F@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk "Jeff Dalton" writes:
>> That's how *I* learned Common Lisp.
>
>Ouch. ;-) I'm glad I had an easier route. The bookshop that sold
>me CTtL was suprised that I was buying it as an individual, as it
>was using ordered by institutions.
>
>Of course, it depends on how familiar you might be with Lisp, as
>you might find it easier to get to grips with CL with some previous
>experience with Lisp and Lisp concepts. I still wouldn't recommend
>the book to a programmer new to CL, simply coz I know of books
>that can do a better job of _teaching_ the language.

I didn't have much trouble learning CLtL from the book, but then I 
was already familiar (by using or reading manuals) with related Lisps.

Common Lisp looks like a fairly natural development of the MacLisp
branch of Lisp to me.  Of course, a different development might have
occurred if various things had been different, for instance a smaller
and more "layered" Lisp.

Some people have a very strong and almost immediate negative
reaction to Common Lisp and to CLtL.  We've seen a little of
that in recent exchanges here.  I've always found it difficult
to understand what was behind it.  Different critics would focus
on different things when it came to specifics, and many of
the specifics that were mentioned seemed fairly minor to me
(e.g. that SETF can be used for CAR and CDR).

-- jeff
