Re: how to learn lisp

[Xah <xahlee@gmail.com>]

On Oct 20, 10:36 pm, TheFlyingDutchman <zzbba...@aol.com> wrote:
> On Oct 12, 9:34 pm, "jacklisp" <jackl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > how to learn lisp
>
> I have studied the Emacs Lisp manual on more than one occassion and
> never got much past evaluating (+ 2 2) in a buffer. But recently I was
> looking to modify my .emacs file and came across something that I
> wasn't aware of that I find very helpful for learning the Lisp part of
> Emacs Lisp (as opposed to the "Emacs API" part of Emacs Lisp). So if
> you haven't seen it yet, there is a -batch option for starting up
> Emacs. If you create an Emacs Lisp file, for example - hello_world.el
> - you can then execute this file in the same manner you would execute
> a Perl/Python/Ruby/Tcl script by typing "emacs -batch -l
> hello_world.el". In batch mode the (message ... ) function acts like a
> print/printf statement in other languages, so you can start with
> (message "%s" "hello world") and go on from there the way you
> typically would learning a standalone language.

i actually don't find batch mode useful for elisp dev. Some other
suggested the interactive command line mode (Alt+x ielm), but i don't
find it useful neither. I actually never used them for learning elisp
or elisp dev.

I find that, having elisp code in a buffer, and the ability to
evaluate any code in the buffer, in whole or in parts i choose, and
being able to interactively exam variables and values, is more
helpful. I both learned elisp and do elisp dev this way.

I use batch mode when i want to run a already written elisp script for
text processing. The ielm i never used.

Note: the batch mode is the basic style of running programs supported
by almost all langs. The interactive input/output is supported by
Python, Common Lisp, many Scheme Lisp, etc langs. Typically functional
langs.
The eval any parts in buffer is often called notebook, and is the
typical way of running programs in MATLAB, mathCAD, Mathematica ...

  Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄