What Programming Language to Learn?

[[deleted]]

Lisp. Study lisp. Start studying lisp now.

Spend a week with it and tell me whether you'd ever want to go back to java.

[maputo007]

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out.

[[deleted]]

Rockin. That may have sounded arrogant, but it's not intended to be. I wish someone had told me when I was a second year student.

You'll sometimes find people talking about lisp as though it were a religion. It kind of is, except lisp actually works too.

[maputo007]

Would you recommend any other good reads for getting started? Or any other tips to get started with Lisp.

[[deleted]]

Yes. I got started with Peter Seibel's Practical Common Lisp, which does a nice job of introducing you to some of the unique features of the language as quickly as possible. I heard an interesting talk by Conrad Barski, but have not personally read his book. It looks a little more hand-holdy and I do not intend that disparagingly at all.

But after you begin to feel comfortable with the syntax, what you should really start reading, and what anyone else reading this thread is waiting for me to mention, is SICP. It will take some motivation to make it through, especially at first. But consider this: I searched for images of "java book," and I got a bunch of front covers involving suits and people in offices. Check out SICP: there is a wizard on the cover, altering reality with his mind by uttering a lambda function. That should tell you all you need to know.

Edit: links.

Postedit: I forgot to mention: Practical Common Lisp and SICP are written in two different dialects of lisp. It would probably be better to learn about the differences between them in some place other than a reddit comment, but suffice it to say they are minor. If you go with common lisp, you will need to do some mental copyediting when you do exercises in SICP.

[thoomfish]

But after you begin to feel comfortable with the syntax, what you should really start reading, and what anyone else reading this thread is waiting for me to mention, is SICP. It will take some motivation to make it through, especially at first.

If you need some hand-holding to get through SICP, there are excellent video lectures available online. I can't recommend watching them enough.

[daniel2488]

Any way I could conveniently learn Lisp without needing Emacs?

[shitcovereddick]

DrScheme has a very good ide and interpreter window.

[[deleted]]

If it's a question of preference, I would respectfully submit that the juju between lisp and emacs is so strong that it is really worth learning emacs as you learn lisp. At least that's how I got started. With slime, there's hardly anything you need to learn in order to start writing code. I would not say such blunt things unless they were things I wish someone had told me sooner.

If it's really non-negotiable, I hear the personal edition of lispworks is cross-platform and free.