Q: How did _YOU_ learn Elisp?

Q: How did _YOU_ learn Elisp?

[Passer By]

just wondering.

Re: Q: How did _YOU_ learn Elisp?

[Bastien]

Passer By <sender@sender.send> writes:

> just wondering.

C-h i m Elisp RET

-- 
Bastien

Q: How did _YOU_ learn Elisp?

[Gian Uberto Lauri]

>>>>> "PB" == Passer By <sender@sender.send> writes:

PB> just wondering.

If you want to write a large application, then read the documentation.

If you want to automate your work, most of the work is doing C-h k for
the commands you type plus  learning a minimum of flow control ((while
) (cond ) ) and apropos to discover function names.

Use C-h f to read each function documentation.

-- 
 /\           ___
/___/\_|_|\_|__|___Gian Uberto Lauri_____
  //--\| | \|  |   Integralista GNUslamico
\/                 e coltivatore diretto di Software

Re: Q: How did _YOU_ learn Elisp?

[Florian Kaufmann]

Hi

I am also currently learning it. On
http://xemacs.org/Documentation/index.html there is the "Programming in
Emacs Lisp, an Introduction (emacs-lisp-intro)" and the "XEmacs Lisp
Reference Manual (lispref)". I read parts of the first document. I also
read the internal document a lot. C-h i and then browse to lispref. I
try the examples which you will find there. Then I try to implement
some little defuns I think which help me in my daily work, and so learn
elisp by doing. Currently code from other people still looks quite
complicated to me, but I am starting to understand it and can learn
from it. And for learning in general, it always helps me to write
resumes about what I learned. This way I can write down the information
in a way which fits my thinking patterns, and I only write down the
information that is important to me. 

Greetings

Flo

Re: Q: How did _YOU_ learn Elisp?

[Mirko]

Passer By wrote:
> just wondering.

I use the O'Reilly book Writing GNU Emacs Extensions by Bob Glickstein.
 There is also an info manual on introduction with elisp which is
excellent.  The elisp manual itself is also quite good, although
sometimes I wish it had more examples (but how can I complain if it is
free?).

When I get stuck I ask my question on this group, and almost always
(except for my last post on grep, cygwin, and emacs) receive useful
(sometimes highly compressed - but those make you think and look into
the docs, and are thus also helpful) answers.

I also read somewhere that learning lips helps the programming style in
other languages.  I think that may actually be correct, although the
experiment is still in progress.  Still, I like (e)lisp.

Mirko

Re: Q: How did _YOU_ learn Elisp?

[Gian Uberto Lauri]

>>>>> "M" == Mirko  <mvukovic@nycap.rr.com> writes:

M> good, although sometimes I wish it had more examples (but how can I
M> complain if it is free?).

Since it's Free (as in Freedom, not as in free beer) you could provide
improvements :) :).

M> I also read somewhere that learning lips helps the programming
M> style in other languages.

I agree.  Programming LISP gives a better  understanding. It provides,
for one example, a very good  response to the answer "how important is
operators overriding ?" even if not directly.

Type (+ 1 1) in *scratch* and then go with the cursor on the +, then
type C-h f ...

-- 
 /\           ___
/___/\_|_|\_|__|___Gian Uberto Lauri_____
  //--\| | \|  |   Integralista GNUslamico
\/                 e coltivatore diretto di Software

Re: Q: How did _YOU_ learn Elisp?

[Mark T.B. Carroll]

Passer By <sender@sender.send> writes:

> just wondering.

Already knowing ML, I learned basic Common Lisp from Paul Graham's
writings, then I adapted that by looking at others' code and using the
GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual.

-- Mark

Re: Q: How did _YOU_ learn Elisp?

[Perry Smith]

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I learned over a long of time -- before there was an emacs lisp  
manual.  I used Guy Steel's book on Common Lisp as a basic guide to  
lisp.  I would not use it today though.  It is nice because you have  
all the source available.  So, just like doing html pages is often  
the process of find a page that does what you want to do and see how  
they did it, elisp is the same: find something that is close,  
understand how it works, then modify it.

So, basically, I would start small, do tweeks and adjustments to  
existing things.  Then move on to bigger things.  I generally write  
most of my stuff in the *scratch* buffer so I can experiment and play  
quickly.  There is another mode that can be used but I never learned it.

Perry Smith ( pedz@easesoftware.com )
Ease Software, Inc. ( http://www.easesoftware.com )

Low cost SATA Disk Systems for IBMs p5, pSeries, and RS/6000 AIX systems



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Re: Q: How did _YOU_ learn Elisp?

[Robert Thorpe]

Passer By wrote:
> just wondering.

>From the Emacs Lisp Intro.

Which is here for example:-
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs-lisp-intro/emacs-lisp-intro.html

It was the first Lisp I learnt.