50 lines
2.1 KiB
HTML
50 lines
2.1 KiB
HTML
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3O//DTD W3 HTML 2.0//EN">
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<!Originally converted to HTML using LaTeX2HTML 95 (Thu Jan 19 1995) by Nikos Drakos (nikos@cbl.leeds.ac.uk), CBLU, University of Leeds >
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<HEAD>
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<TITLE> A Word about Lisp</TITLE>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY>
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<meta name="description" value=" A Word about Lisp">
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<meta name="keywords" value="lp">
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<meta name="resource-type" value="document">
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<meta name="distribution" value="global">
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<P>
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<BR> <HR>
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<A HREF="node43.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="next" SRC="next_motif.gif"></A>
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<A HREF="node41.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="up" SRC="up_motif.gif"></A>
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<A HREF="node41.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="previous" SRC="previous_motif.gif"></A> <BR>
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<A HREF="lp.html"><B>Contents</B></A>
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<B> Next:</B>
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<A HREF="node43.html"> Recursion on Simple </A>
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<B>Up:</B>
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<A HREF="node41.html"> Programming Techniques</A>
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<B> Previous:</B>
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<A HREF="node41.html"> Programming Techniques</A>
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<BR> <HR> <P>
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<H1> A Word about Lisp</H1>
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<P>
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Lisp was developed as a functional programming language. This means it
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is based on the use of expressions. The readers may be familiar with
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Pascal, C, or FORTRAN, which are all classified as imperative
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programming languages. These languages are statement-oriented, the
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programs consisting of a sequence of statements. Lisp programs,
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as originally defined, were specified entirely as expressions.
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Current day implementations of Lisp, however, have extensions which
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allow Lisp programs to be more statement-oriented.
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At the heart of Lisp is recursion (chapter 3). Due to
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their regular, recursive structure, Lisp programs tend to be short and
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elegant. But also, to be able to program effectively in Lisp, a
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different kind of thinking is required; one must learn to think
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recursively. This is very different from statement-oriented thinking
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required for languages such as Pascal, C, or FORTRAN. A few simple
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rules presented in the next few sections will help the reader to think
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recursively and create better Lisp programs.
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<P>
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<BR> <HR>
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<P>
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<ADDRESS>
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<I>© Colin Allen & Maneesh Dhagat <BR>
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March 2007 </I>
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</ADDRESS>
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</BODY>
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