Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!darwin.sura.net!lhc!lhc!hunter
From: hunter@work.nlm.nih.gov (Larry Hunter)
Subject: Re: Newbie - where to start?!?!
In-Reply-To: npm@indeed.netcom.com's message of Thu, 15 Dec 1994 18:51:35 GMT
Message-ID: <HUNTER.94Dec16104155@work.nlm.nih.gov>
Sender: news@nlm.nih.gov
Reply-To: Hunter@nlm.nih.gov
Organization: National Library of Medicine
References: <3cnbso$l8v@gateway.wiltel.com> <NPM.94Dec15105135@indeed.netcom.com>
Date: 16 Dec 1994 15:41:55 GMT
Lines: 51


Igor Chudov asked about how to start learning lisp:

   I wanted to learn LISP by myself. I work on RS-6000, AIX. What FREE
   implementation of LISP would you recommend me to start with? Pointers and
   suggestions are appreciated.

And Niels Mayer offered several helpful suggestions, including

  Lisp is also best learnt (IMHO) by starting with other examples and
  playing with them interactively. Attempt to modify an existing program, or
  try to add new features.

I would like to endorse that idea, and add to it.  Some of the best
experiences I've had teaching lisp were using the "Inside..." books, such as
Riesbeck & Schank's "Inside Case-based Reasoning."  These books have
chapters describing interesting and serious AI programs, and then have
follow up chapters with "mini" versions of them, which include the key
aspects of each program.  The mini versions include lisp source code (more
recent ones Common Lisp, older ones have other dialects) and exercises for
extending the programs in various ways.  If you want to learn lisp and about
what AI programs really do, this is a great way to do it.  These books are
published by Lawrence Erlbaum & Associates, who you can reach at
(800)9-BOOKS-9.  As you get more familiar with lisp programming and you want
to learn more sophisticated AI programmin techniques, I'd recommend
Charniak, et al's "Artificial Ingelligence Programming" which is now in its
second edition, and also available from Erlbaum.

If your interest in lisp is not primarily for AI, or you've never really
taken a software engineering course, an excellent book to use is Susman &
Abelson's "The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs," from the
MIT Press.  It's what MIT undergrads learn programming from, and the
language used is scheme.  MIT Scheme (also known as C Scheme) is available
by ftp (see the FAQ) and as are problem sets, source code, etc. related to
SICP.  If you read, digest and do the exercises in this book, you'll be a
better programmer than most.

Have fun, and enjoy learning lisp -- it can be a lot of fun.

Larry


--
Lawrence Hunter, PhD.
National Library of Medicine
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