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Practical Common Lisp

Written by Peter Seibel

5.01 rating

506 pages, about 10 hours of reading

Computers

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About this book

Lisp is often thought of as an academic language, but it need not be. This is the first book that introduces Lisp as a language for the real world. Practical Common Lisp presents a thorough introduction to Common Lisp, providing you with an overall understanding of the language features and how they work. Over a third of the book is devoted to practical examples, such as the core of a spam filter and a web application for browsing MP3s and streaming them via the Shoutcast protocol to any standard MP3 client software (e.g., iTunes, XMMS, or WinAmp). In other "practical" chapters, author Peter Seibel demonstrates how to build a simple but flexible in-memory database, how to parse binary files, and how to build a unit test framework in 26 lines of code.

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Reading guide

Themes, characters and key ideas in Practical Common Lisp, written by Chaptra AI.

  • about 80 hours
  • intermediate
  • instructive
  • empowering
  • challenging

Practical Common Lisp by Peter Seibel is a highly regarded technical programming book that serves as an excellent introduction to the Common Lisp programming language for experienced programmers. It distinguishes itself by focusing on practical application through a series of progressively complex projects, rather than just theoretical concepts. The book guides readers through building real-world applications, such as a web server, a unit test framework, and a spam filter, demonstrating Lisp's unique strengths and idioms. Seibel's clear, engaging, and often humorous writing style makes the often-intimidating world of Lisp accessible and enjoyable, empowering readers to leverage its powerful features like macros and the REPL.

“Lisp is a programmable programming language.”

Key themes

Practical Application of Lisp
The book's core philosophy is to teach Common Lisp by doing. It moves beyond abstract concepts to demonstrate how Lisp can be used to build real-world, functional applications. This theme emphasizes the utility and power of Lisp in practical programming scenarios, contrasting with its academic reputation.
Metaprogramming and Language Extensibility
A central theme is Common Lisp's unparalleled ability to extend and modify itself through macros. The book thoroughly explains how macros work, how they differ from functions, and how they can be used to create domain-specific languages (DSLs) or new control structures, effectively allowing the programmer to tailor the language to the problem at hand.
Interactive and Incremental Development
The book implicitly and explicitly promotes the Lisp-specific development workflow centered around the REPL (Read-Eval-Print Loop). This theme emphasizes rapid prototyping, incremental testing, and modifying code in a running system, which fosters a more fluid and experimental approach to programming compared to traditional compile-and-run cycles.

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