Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.scheme
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From: vfr750@netcom.com (Will Hartung)
Subject: A 'Little Lisp'?
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Date: Mon, 8 Apr 1996 18:36:44 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.lang.lisp:21308 comp.lang.scheme:15575

I was reading "A Little Smalltalk" by Timothy Bud this weekend. It's a
book that I've probably had for year, but just picked it up again and
re-read it.

For those who may not have seen this book, it discusses the use and
implementation of a Little Smalltalk, which I believe is the GNU
Smalltalk, but I really don't know.

It starts with some basica sytax and use chapters, flows into some
other topics dealing with Genreators and Filters and dealing with
simulations and multi-tasking. The first half is really nice I think.

The second half deals with the actual implementation of the
interpreter with snippets of C source and discussions about all the
concessions and decisions that were made in the design.

I really liked this book and was wondering if there might be a
similiar book for Lisp/Scheme. I guess SICP has some discussion in it,
but I've never actually looked at it. I was hoping that there would be
some notes in the XLISP distribution, but there's barely a README in
the file I picked up. Maybe there's an original article describing
XLISP, but I haven't been able to hunt it down.

I'm looking for something real casual, not a real formal treatment.
There was a book years ago on Threaded Interpreters that discussed the
implementation of a Forth-like language, and that was a great book, I
thought. Something practical and usable, yet still approachable at
a level just above bathroom reading. Light, Sunday 'at the beach'
reading. Give folks the impression that I may actually have a
life...Sunblock, Ice coolers, gaudy umbrellas and scantily clad
humanity don't really mix well with SICP...The book weighs more than a
six-pack.

So, if anyone has some pointers to a book or some papers online that
give a similiar treatment to Lisp/Scheme, I'd appreciate it.
-- 
Will Hartung - Rancho Santa Margarita. It's a dry heat. vfr750@netcom.com
1990 VFR750 - VFR=Very Red    "Ho, HaHa, Dodge, Parry, Spin, HA! THRUST!"
1993 Explorer - Cage? Hell, it's a prison.                    -D. Duck
