RE: learning Emacs Lisp

["Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> The best resources for elisp are
> (info "(eintr)Top") and (info "(elisp)Top")
> together with the online help (`C-h ?').

Yes!

Here's something to keep in mind. Lisp is a bit peculiar wrt things such as data
structures and variables. Do yourself a favor and learn about things such as
lists (list structure) and symbols from the above-mentioned sources or from
other texts specifically about Lisp.

Do not try to learn about such things from loose analogies with other languages,
especially from writers who might not be all that Lispian.

I'm not trying to denigrate any given text that tries to help you learn. I'm
just saying beware of being misled by writings that tell you that symbols are
variables or are like variables, or that Lisp passes arguments by value or
reference or whatever - and so forth. Learn Lisp as Lisp, not wearing C or Java
or Haskell glasses. Learn about symbols and conses and quote. Then go forth and
cons.

The Emacs-Lisp Intro mentioned above is definitely the place to start, as well
as the first few chapters of the Elisp manual.

Any book about Lisp is also bound to help, in spite of the fact that each Lisp
dialect is a bit different. What's important is to grasp the basics of Lisp
itself.