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LISP Programming: Function Arg Arg Arg Arg

This document provides an overview of the LISP programming language. It explains that LISP is one of the simplest languages in terms of syntax and semantics but also one of the most powerful. It was developed in the 1950s and is used for artificial intelligence programs. The basis of LISP is lists, which are constructed using parentheses. All statements in LISP are function calls with a standard syntax. Common functions include ADD, MULT, SUB, and DIV. Examples are provided to demonstrate how functions are evaluated and used to perform calculations.

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27 views

LISP Programming: Function Arg Arg Arg Arg

This document provides an overview of the LISP programming language. It explains that LISP is one of the simplest languages in terms of syntax and semantics but also one of the most powerful. It was developed in the 1950s and is used for artificial intelligence programs. The basis of LISP is lists, which are constructed using parentheses. All statements in LISP are function calls with a standard syntax. Common functions include ADD, MULT, SUB, and DIV. Examples are provided to demonstrate how functions are evaluated and used to perform calculations.

Uploaded by

Evan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LISP Programming

LISP is one of the simplest computer languages in terms of syntax and semantics, and also one of the
most powerful. It was developed in the mid-1950’s by John McCarthy at M.I.T. as a “LISt Processing
language”. Today, it is used for virtually all Artificial Intelligence programs and is the environment of
choice for applications which require a powerful interactive working environment. LISP presents a
very different way to think about programming from the “algorithmic” languages, such as BASIC,
Fortran and Pascal.
As its name implies, the basis of LISP is a list. One constructs a list by enumerating elements inside a
pair of parentheses. For example, here is a list with four elements (the second element is also a list):
(23 (this is easy) hello 821)
All statements in LISP are function calls with the following syntax: (function arg1 arg2 arg3 … argn). To
evaluate a LISP statement, each of the arguments (possibly functions themselves) are evaluated, and
then the function is invoked with the arguments. For example, (MULT (ADD 2 3) (ADD 1 4 2)) has a
value of 35, since (ADD 2 3) has a value of 5, (ADD 1 4 2) has a value of 7, and (MULT 5 7) has a
value of 35. Some functions have an arbitrary number of arguments; others require a fixed number.
All statements return a value, which is either an atom or a list.

FUNCTION RESULT
(ADD x1 x2 …) sum of all arguments
(MULT x1 x2 …) product of all arguments
(SUB a b) a-b
(DIV a b) a/b
(SQUARE a) a*a
(EXP a n) an
(EQ a b) true if a and b are equal, NIL otherwise
(POS a) true if a is positive, NIL otherwise
(NEG a) true if a is negative, NIL otherwise

Some examples of these functions are as follows:

STATEMENT VALUE
(ADD (EXP 2 3) (SUB 4 1) (DIV 54 4)) 24.5
(SUB (MULT 3 2) (SUB 12 (ADD 2 2))) -2
(ADD (SQUARE 3) (SQUARE 4)) 25

STEMPIA
LISP Programming - Worksheet

1. 05-06 C1 Lisp Programming 4


Evaluate: (DIV (MULT (ADD 2 3) (SQUARE 2)) (SUB (EXP 2 3) (ADD 2 1)))

2. 06-07 C1 Lisp Programming 2


Evaluate: (DIV (MULT (ADD 1 4 5) (SUB 7 2)) (EXP 5 2))

3. 07-08 C1 Lisp Programming 14


Evaluate the following expression:
(ADD (ADD 3 4) (SUB 5 2) (MULT 3 2) (EXP 2 3))

4. 08-09 C1 Lisp Programming 5


Evaluate the following expression:
(DIV (ADD (ADD 3 4) (MULT 4 2)) (SUB 8 5))

5. 12-13 C4 Lisp Programming (5 6)


Simplify the following expression:
(CAR (CAR (CDR (CDR (CDR ‘(1 (2 3) 4 ((5 6) (7 8) 9)))))))

6. 13-14 C4 Lisp Programming (3 (4))


Evaluate: (CAR (CDR (CDR ‘(1 (2) (3 (4))))))

7. 14-15 C4 Lisp Programming (d)


Evaluate the following expression:

(CDR (CAR (CDR (CAR ‘((b (c d) (e f g)) (h (j k)))))))

STEMPIA

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