This book had its genesis in the following piece of computer mail: From allegra!joan-b Tue Dec 18 09:15:54 1984 To: sola!hjb Subject: lispm Hank, I've been talking with Mark Plotnik and Bill Gale about asking you to conduct a basic course on using the lisp machine. Mark, for instance, would really like to cover basics like the flavor system, etc., so he could start doing his own programming without a lot of trial and error, and Bill and I would be interested in this, too. I'm quite sure that Mark Jones, Bruce, Eric and Van would also be really interested. Would you like to do it? Bill has let me know that if you'd care to set something up, he's free to meet with us anytime this week or next (although I'll only be here on Wed. next week) so we can come up with a plan. What do you think? Joan.

* Treats LISP as a language for commercial applications, not a language for academic AI concerns. This could be considered to be a secondary text for the Lisp course that most schools teach . This would appeal to students who sat through a LISP course in college without quite getting it – so a "nostalgia" approach, as in "wow-lisp can be practical..." * Discusses the Lisp programming model and environment. Contains an introduction to the language and gives a thorough overview of all of Common Lisp’s main features. * Designed for experienced programmers no matter what languages they may be coming from and written for a modern audience—programmers who are familiar with languages like Java, Python, and Perl. * Includes several examples of working code that actually does something useful like Web programming and database access.

The defacto standard - a must-have for all LISP programmers. In this greatly expanded edition of the defacto standard, you'll learn about the nearly 200 changes already made since original publication - and find out about gray areas likely to be revised later. Written by the Vice- Chairman of X3J13 (the ANSI committee responsible for the standardization of Common Lisp) and co-developer of the language itself, the new edition contains the entire text of the first edition plus six completely new chapters. They cover: - CLOS, the Common Lisp Object System, with new features to support function overloading and object-oriented programming, plus complete technical specifications * Loops, a powerful control structure for multiple variables * Conditions, a generalization of the error signaling mechanism * Series and generators * Plus other subjects not part of the ANSI standards but of interest to professional programmers. Throughout, you'll find fresh examples, additional clarifications, warnings, and tips - all presented with the author's customary vigor and wit.