What programming language should I start with?

Re:What programming language should I start with? by daniel-cussen on Tuesday August 21, 2007 @12:11AM (#44637)

I'm learning on Lisp, and it's kind of weird. I'm using Practical Common Lisp (http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/) and I have to reread chapters a few times to really understand them. I downloaded Lisp in a Box for it, and that is weird because it's rickety. The tutorial isn't there, and it will keep kicking me out of the SLIME.

I'm in the middle of a four-month vacation, but progress is pathetic. Lisp in a box and Practical Common Lisp aren't helping me stay on task. The look like they're made for guys who are learning their sixth programming language.

If you're looking to learn Lisp, try to find something ostensibly beginner-friendly.

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Re:What programming language should I start with? by Zak on Tuesday August 21, 2007 @12:42AM (#44649)

I love that book, but I have to agree with you: it's intended to teach Lisp, not programming. If you don't already know how to program, you probably won't learn programming or Lisp from PCL. Instead, you're likely to get turned off to both.

The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs is a great book for learning the fundamentals of programming. It happens to use Scheme, a dialect of Lisp. If you want an academic introduction to programming, it's one of the best. I haven't found anything as good that takes a more pragmatic "let's build something useful/fun and learn to program in the process" approach, but I bet someone else here has.

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Re:What programming language should I start with? by daniel-cussen on Tuesday August 21, 2007 @10:28PM (#45067)

Thank you, Zak. I'm going to look into that book.

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Re:What programming language should I start with? by vikram on Tuesday August 21, 2007 @04:44AM (#44710)

You really need to have a problem in your mind that you want to solve. That makes the task a lot easier. As you can see progress.

Test out that understanding. I bet you know more than you think you know. The purpose of a book like PCL is to be a reference. Scan it properly and go back to it when you need to find something. Intially it will take sometime, then your brain will learn and you won't be looking up so often.

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Re:What programming language should I start with? by Shorel on Thursday August 23, 2007 @12:55PM (#45706)

You can't learn lisp with PCL. You can marvel and say ohhh Lisp can do that kind of stuff! But you can't really learn the language with a handful of pre-made examples.

To learning lisp I recommend: http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/pub/WWW/faculty/shapiro/Commonlis...

Notes: YOU HAVE TO DO ALL EXERCISES. Just reading the book teaches you very little.

After this, you can go and read On Lisp (the Uber-Programmer Lisp book) and understand it perfectly in the first read.

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