On Lisp

During my vacation, I skimmed Paul Graham’s book On Lisp. There were many interesting bits in there:

  • He really tries to “sell the wonder of Lisp”. I’m not sure is possible, though.
  • “Users prefer double edged swords to blunt ones”
  • I think that he loves Scheme, but uses CL for practical reasons.
  • He digs deep into code, heavily visiting macros and even implementing continuations, non-determinism, and an object system
  • He is probably a world-class hacker who will never be recognized for his talent, but instead his success
  • This is probably not a good “first Common Lisp book” as it is very deep stuff

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