Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow

Questions tagged [common-lisp]

Common Lisp is a standardized version of the Lisp programming language intended for production-strength power.

Common Lisp, the programmable programming language.

See the Wikipedia page on Common Lisp for more information about the language. There is an online version of the ANSI Common Lisp standard and a list of recommended Common Lisp implementations. Many Lisp specific mailing lists are archived at Gmane.

There is a stackoverflow chat room for Lisp-like languages: Lisp.

Popular Common Lisp implementations

Free Common Lisp Programming Books

Common Lisp Programming Books

See also

5609 questions
176
votes
6 answers

Difference between `set`, `setq`, and `setf` in Common Lisp?

What is the difference between "set", "setq", and "setf" in Common Lisp?
Richard Hoskins
  • 1,962
  • 2
  • 12
  • 9
169
votes
22 answers

What's the best way to learn LISP?

I have been programming in Python, PHP, Java and C for a couple or years now, and I just finished reading Hackers and Painters, so I would love to give LISP a try! I understand its totally diferent from what i know and that it won't be easy. Also I…
DFectuoso
  • 4,960
  • 13
  • 37
  • 55
148
votes
38 answers

Lisp in the real world

I have experimented with Lisp (actually Scheme) and found it to be a very beautiful language that I am interested in learning more about. However, it appears that Lisp is never used in serious projects, and I haven't seen it listed as a desired…
titaniumdecoy
  • 17,909
  • 17
  • 93
  • 130
147
votes
4 answers

Please explain some of Paul Graham's points on Lisp

I need some help understanding some of the points from Paul Graham’s What Made Lisp Different. A new concept of variables. In Lisp, all variables are effectively pointers. Values are what have types, not variables, and assigning or binding…
unj2
  • 47,759
  • 80
  • 235
  • 362
142
votes
12 answers

Why exactly is eval evil?

I know that Lisp and Scheme programmers usually say that eval should be avoided unless strictly necessary. I’ve seen the same recommendation for several programming languages, but I’ve not yet seen a list of clear arguments against the use of eval.…
Jay
  • 9,293
  • 6
  • 44
  • 67
131
votes
4 answers

What are the differences between Clojure, Scheme/Racket and Common Lisp?

I know they are dialects of the same family of language called lisp, but what exactly are the differences? Could you give an overview, if possible, covering topics such as syntax, characteristics, features and resources.
MaiaVictor
  • 45,122
  • 42
  • 127
  • 254
97
votes
4 answers

Clojure vs other Lisps

The intent of my question is not to start a flame war, but rather to determine in what circumstances each language is "the best tool for the job." I have read several books on Clojure (Programming Clojure, Practical Clojure, The Joy of Clojure, and…
Ralph
  • 29,142
  • 31
  • 124
  • 261
88
votes
11 answers

Using Vim for Lisp development

I've been using Lisp on and off for a while but I'm starting to get more serious about doing some "real" work in Lisp. I'm a huge Vim fan and was wondering how I can be most productive using Vim as my editor for Lisp development. Plugins, work flow…
Drew Olson
  • 3,539
  • 3
  • 21
  • 14
88
votes
4 answers

What are the actual differences between Scheme and Common Lisp? (Or any other two dialects of Lisp)

Note: I am not asking which to learn, which is better, or anything like that. I picked up the free version of SICP because I felt it would be nice to read (I've heard good stuff about it, and I'm interested in that sort of side of programming). I…
The Communist Duck
  • 5,649
  • 3
  • 33
  • 47
84
votes
16 answers

LET versus LET* in Common Lisp

I understand the difference between LET and LET* (parallel versus sequential binding), and as a theoretical matter it makes perfect sense. But is there any case where you've ever actually needed LET? In all of my Lisp code that I've looked at…
Ken
  • 4,754
  • 6
  • 27
  • 25
80
votes
2 answers

Where to learn how to practically use Common Lisp

I am a C++ programmer trying to learn Common Lisp. I have looked at some books like Land of Lisp and read numerous online articles about the various virtues of Lisp. However, I need some advice. Almost everything I have read about Common Lisp has to…
NewLisper
  • 827
  • 1
  • 7
  • 5
80
votes
6 answers

How many primitives does it take to build a LISP machine? Ten, seven or five?

On this site they say there are 10 LISP primitives. The primitives are: atom, quote, eq, car, cdr, cons, cond, lambda, label, apply. http://hyperpolyglot.wikidot.com/lisp#ten-primitives Stevey reckons there are seven (or five): Its part of the…
hawkeye
  • 31,052
  • 27
  • 133
  • 271
78
votes
3 answers

What's the difference between eq, eql, equal and equalp, in Common Lisp?

What's the difference between eq, eql, equal and equalp, in Common Lisp? I understand that some of them check types, some of them check across types an all that, but which is which? When is one better to use than the others?
Cristián Romo
  • 9,206
  • 12
  • 46
  • 50
70
votes
9 answers

Why is the Lisp community so fragmented?

To begin, not only are there two main dialects of the language (Common Lisp and Scheme), but each of the dialects has many individual implementations. For example, Chicken Scheme, Bigloo, etc... each with slight differences. From a modern point of…
Justin Ethier
  • 122,367
  • 49
  • 219
  • 273
65
votes
5 answers

Lisp commenting convention

What is the Lisp convention about how many semicolons to use for different kinds of comments (and what the level of indentation for various numbers of semicolons should be)? Also, is there any convention about when to use semicolon comments and…
compman
  • 2,014
  • 2
  • 17
  • 25
1
2 3
…
99 100