Book recommendation

Book recommendation

[Hadron Quark]

The elisp info/manual is too much like a standard. Is there a K&R type book you
can recommend for elisp? One that takes you on a journeay with the
language while developing small programs?

How much like "Lisp" is "elisp"? The same? is there *a* Lisp? or does it
vary a lot?

What would you recommend for someone to get to grips with advanced Lisp
programming in emacs?

Is (debugger) the only debugger? Seems kind of antiquated and hard to
use - even gdb provides more for C debugging in emacs.

Re: Book recommendation

[Eric Hanchrow]

>>>>> "Hadron" == Hadron Quark <hadronquark@gmail.com> writes:

    Hadron> The elisp info/manual is too much like a standard.  

That's a shame -- I think that manual is one of the better ones I've
ever read.
                                                                
    Hadron> Is there a K&R type book you can recommend for elisp?  

Well, there's http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs-lisp-intro.  Not
very K&R-like, but perhaps it'll do.

    Hadron> How much like "Lisp" is "elisp"?  

elisp _is_ Lisp.  You probably meant "How much like Common Lisp is
elisp".  I don't know.  It has lots in common, and many differences.
                                              
    Hadron> is there *a* Lisp?  or does it vary a lot?

Try http://lisp.org/alu/home; click the "Lisp Resources" link.

    Hadron> What would you recommend for someone to get to grips with
    Hadron> advanced Lisp programming in emacs?

The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual.

    Hadron> Is (debugger) the only debugger?  

There's edebug-mode.  Very handy.

-- 
In the practice of computing, where we have so much latitude for
making a mess of it, mathematical elegance is not a dispensable
luxury, but a matter of life and death.
        -- Edsger W. Dijkstra: My Hopes of Computing Science (EWD  709)
        http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd07xx/EWD709.PDF

RE: Book recommendation

[Drew Adams]

    The elisp info/manual is too much like a standard. Is there a
    K&R type

(ugh! ouf!)

    book you
    can recommend for elisp? One that takes you on a journeay with the
    language while developing small programs?

Try the Emacs Lisp Introduction manual (also in Info). It is essentially a
tutorial, with lots of examples. It leads you by the hand well.

    How much like "Lisp" is "elisp"? The same? is there *a* Lisp? or does it
    vary a lot?

Emacs Lisp (what you called "elisp") is a Lisp. What do you mean by "a lot"?
What's your yardstick?

    What would you recommend for someone to get to grips with advanced Lisp
    programming in emacs?

Start with the Emacs Lisp Introduction manual. There is enough "advanced
programming" stuff in there to keep you busy for a while.

    Is (debugger) the only debugger? Seems kind of antiquated and hard to
    use - even gdb provides more for C debugging in emacs.

There are several debuggers for Emacs. See the Emacs Lisp manual (elisp).

--

IMO, Emacs Lisp is a *very* good Lisp to learn Lisp with. Others might
disagree (but they're of course wrong).

Re: Book recommendation

[Hadron Quark]

Eric Hanchrow <offby1@blarg.net> writes:

>>>>>> "Hadron" == Hadron Quark <hadronquark@gmail.com> writes:
>
>     Hadron> The elisp info/manual is too much like a standard.  
>
> That's a shame -- I think that manual is one of the better ones I've
> ever read.
>                                                                 
>     Hadron> Is there a K&R type book you can recommend for elisp?  
>
> Well, there's http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs-lisp-intro.  Not
> very K&R-like, but perhaps it'll do.

I was blind. I only saw the Elisp Reference Manual. Doh. Yes, the
introduction is excellent. Thanks.


>
>     Hadron> How much like "Lisp" is "elisp"?  
>
> elisp _is_ Lisp.  You probably meant "How much like Common Lisp is
> elisp".  I don't know.  It has lots in common, and many differences.

Same thing really :) If eLisp is Lisp then Lisp could be common Lisp
... but I take it that its close enough then.

>                                               
>     Hadron> is there *a* Lisp?  or does it vary a lot?
>
> Try http://lisp.org/alu/home; click the "Lisp Resources" link.
>

Great thanks.


>     Hadron> What would you recommend for someone to get to grips with
>     Hadron> advanced Lisp programming in emacs?
>
> The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual.
>
>     Hadron> Is (debugger) the only debugger?  
>
> There's edebug-mode.  Very handy.

Thanks again.

>
> -- 
> In the practice of computing, where we have so much latitude for
> making a mess of it, mathematical elegance is not a dispensable
> luxury, but a matter of life and death.
>         -- Edsger W. Dijkstra: My Hopes of Computing Science (EWD  709)
>         http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd07xx/EWD709.PDF
>
>
>

-- 

Re: Book recommendation

[Kevin Rodgers]

Hadron Quark wrote:
> How much like "Lisp" is "elisp"? The same? is there *a* Lisp? or does it
> vary a lot?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LISP#Genealogy_and_variants

> What would you recommend for someone to get to grips with advanced Lisp
> programming in emacs?

When you come across a command that does something interesting, use
`C-h f' to find the link to its source and study it.

-- 
Kevin

book recommendation

[Baloff]

Hello

I know there is a list of emcas books on one of the emacs related site, 
I came across it the other day, but nothing better than a user 
recommendation.
I am not a "very" beginner, but a beginner in many ways, what is a good 
user guide and a reference to keep in my library.

thanks

RE: book recommendation

[Drew Adams]

    I know there is a list of emcas books on one of the emacs related site,
    I came across it the other day, but nothing better than a user
    recommendation.
    I am not a "very" beginner, but a beginner in many ways, what is a good
    user guide and a reference to keep in my library.

Others may recommend a book. For my part, I recommend the online manuals.
`C-h i', then choose "Emacs". There is also a tutorial there. Finally,
another great online resource and learning center is
http://www.emacswiki.org/.

Re: book recommendation

[Alan Mackenzie]

[Followup-to: comp.emacs]

Baloff <vddr2u@bi.edu.gr> wrote on Sun, 24 Jul 2005 05:08:08 -0700:
> Hello

> I know there is a list of emcas books on one of the emacs related site, 
> I came across it the other day, but nothing better than a user 
> recommendation.
> I am not a "very" beginner, but a beginner in many ways, what is a good 
> user guide and a reference to keep in my library.

Hi, Baloff!

This isn't really the place to ask this question.  There is a policy in
the GNU mailing lists and associated newsgroups that only free (as in
speech) books and those licensed under the GFDL may be specifically
recommended.  This policy is, in general, respected by posters here.

There are books on Emacs which don't fall into the above category.  You
would thus do better asking this question on the newsgroup comp.emacs, to
which I have cross-posted this article.

> thanks

All the best!

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Munich, Germany)
Email: aacm@muuc.dee; to decode, wherever there is a repeated letter
(like "aa"), remove half of them (leaving, say, "a").

Re: book recommendation

[Zephyre]

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Yes, in my opinion, the M-x info and C-h are the most useful two, for
it's so handy and helpful.

In addition, I've found the Emacs-Manual a quite good reference book,
for it's comprehensiveness.

emacswiki is a great on-line lib as well.

On Sun, Jul 24, 2005 at 05:08:08AM -0700, Baloff wrote:
> Hello
> 
> I know there is a list of emcas books on one of the emacs related site, 
> I came across it the other day, but nothing better than a user 
> recommendation.
> I am not a "very" beginner, but a beginner in many ways, what is a good 
> user guide and a reference to keep in my library.
> 
> thanks
> _______________________________________________
> Help-gnu-emacs mailing list
> Help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs

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Re: book recommendation

[Stefan Monnier]

> I know there is a list of emcas books on one of the emacs related site,
> I came across it the other day, but nothing better than
> a user recommendation.
> I am not a "very" beginner, but a beginner in many ways, what is a good user
> guide and a reference to keep in my library.

My I humbly suggest "The Emacs Manual", published by the FSF (you can order
it online at www.fsf.org), and whose online version is bundled with
every Emacs (reachable through C-h i)?


        Stefan