[chicago-lisp] Hello!

[Brian Mastenbrook]

On Mar 5, 2005, at 11:18 AM, David Douthitt wrote:

> Finding out about this list (and this group) turned out to be a 
> challenge :-(
>
> The Association of Lisp User's (ALU) web site doesn't list any 
> information about the "Lispers of Chicago."
>
> However, there _is_ a Greater Chicago Autocad User's Group 
> (incorporating AutoLisp) at http://www.gcaug.com/ and a North Suburban 
> Chicago Scheme Meetup Group at http://lisp.meetup.com/41/about/ .
>
> I've been trying to learn LISP for quite some time (started learning 
> during the latter days of MACLISP ;-) but never quite got over the 
> "hump" that comes in most learning curves.  I think I'm just about 
> there - and finding more than ever what joy LISP can be.
>
> My biggest complaint with LISP and LISP learning materials in 
> particular was this: the materials show examples of how to write 
> programs to compute Fibonnacci numbers, or primes, or how to write a 
> LISP interpreter.
>
> However, they don't show you how to write a program to (for example) 
> sort a file and write it back to disk - or to act as a terminal 
> program - or how to interact with a SQL database - or how to read from 
> the passwrod file.  In short, anything that interacts with the outside 
> world is ignored by such luminaries as Winston and Horn's LISP book.
>
> I have both the first edition (using MACLISP) and the third edition 
> (using Common LISP).
>
> I look forward to becoming more proficient in LISP and to the next 
> meeting of the LISP Chicago group.  Since any part of Chicago is some 
> distance for me, it matters not where - as long as I don't have to be 
> afraid to be there after dark ;-)

Hi David,

Thanks for the experience. The Common Lisp community moves rapidly 
these days, and you may not find it as impractical (ha!) as it used to 
be. For starters, we have discovered lowercase letters, and write 
"Lisp" or "Common Lisp" (abbreviated to CL) :-)

I would suggest you look at this guide to getting set up to learn 
Common Lisp: http://www.unmutual.info/startingwithcl.html . The book 
that is recommended there, Practical Common Lisp ( 
http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/ ), is quite an excellent text and 
available both in an upcoming hardcopy version and in full text online.

If you start with these resources I can pretty much promise that 
learning modern CL will be enjoyable and very practical. I certainly 
find it to be so; there's a lot of activity in the community and a lot 
of new developments that are very exciting. If you are ever on IRC, the 
channel #lisp on irc.freenode.net is a good place to ask questions. You 
can often find me there as "chandler", but don't be afraid to ask a 
question to the whole channel.

I'm still planning to set up a next meeting with some 
mini-presentations but I haven't had a chance to get it set up yet. It 
seems like there is some more interest now, so I'll go ahead and start 
investigating.

The next meeting will be announced here and on Planet Lisp, which you 
should also be reading daily: http://planet.lisp.org/

Welcome and I hope you enjoy learning and exploring!
--
Brian Mastenbrook
bmastenb at cs.indiana.edu
http://cs.indiana.edu/~bmastenb/