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<li class="header">LEARN LISP THE HARD WAY</li>
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Second Draft (in-progress)
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TODO
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TANSTAAFL
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The Hard Way is Easier
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Who Is This Book For?
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Lisp: A Future History
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<li class="header">PART ONE</li>
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Grokking Lisp
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Common Lisp Bootcamp
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Syntax Overview in 5 Minutes
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The REPL
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Expressions, Parentheses, and Return Values
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Lists, Cons-Cells, and Memory
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Symbols and Namespaces
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Prefix Notation
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Common Lisp Style Guide
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Configuring Your Development Environment
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Printing, Streams, and Strings
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Strings
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More Strings
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Unicode and Strings
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Characters
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More Characters
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Character Codes
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.2.7" data-path="1-02-07-strings-from-chars.html">
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Strings from Chars
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.2.8" data-path="1-02-08-printing.html">
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Printing
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More Printing
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.2.10" data-path="1-02-10-prin1.html">
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Printing With prin1
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.2.11" data-path="1-02-11-princ.html">
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Printing With princ
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.2.12" data-path="1-02-12-format.html">
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A Brief Introduction to Format
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.2.13" data-path="1-02-13-more-format.html">
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A Little Bit More on Format
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.2.14" data-path="1-02-14-pathnames.html">
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Pathnames
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.2.15" data-path="1-02-15-streams.html">
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Streams
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.2.16" data-path="1-02-16-file-streams.html">
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File Streams
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.2.17" data-path="1-02-17-binary-streams.html">
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Binary Streams
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.2.18" data-path="1-02-18-prompting-users.html">
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Prompting Users
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.2.19" data-path="1-02-19-pretty-printing.html">
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Pretty-Printing
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Extra Credit: Getting Input from Users
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Lists and List-Operations
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Extra Credit: Look-up Lists and Trees
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Numbers and Math
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Integers
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.6.2" data-path="1-06-02-more-integers.html">
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More Integers
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.6.3" data-path="1-06-03-hexadecimal-notation.html">
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Hexadecimal Integer Notation
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.6.4" data-path="1-06-04-octal-notation.html">
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Octal Integer Notation
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.6.5" data-path="1-06-05-binary-notation.html">
<a href="1-06-05-binary-notation.html">
Binary Integer Notation
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.6.6" data-path="1-06-06-ratios.html">
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Ratios and Rational Numbers
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.6.7" data-path="1-06-07-floating-point.html">
<a href="1-06-07-floating-point.html">
Floating-point Numbers
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.6.8" data-path="1-06-08-constants.html">
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Numeric Constants
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.6.9" data-path="1-06-09-complex-numbers.html">
<a href="1-06-09-complex-numbers.html">
Complex Numbers
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.6.10" data-path="1-06-10-arithmetic.html">
<a href="1-06-10-arithmetic.html">
Arithmetic
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.6.11" data-path="1-06-11-more-arithmetic.html">
<a href="1-06-11-more-arithmetic.html">
More Arithmetic
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.6.12" data-path="1-06-12-even-more-arithmetic.html">
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Even More Arithmetic
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.6.13" data-path="1-06-13-exponents.html">
<a href="1-06-13-exponents.html">
Exponents
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.6.14" data-path="1-06-14-logarithms.html">
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Logarithms
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.6.15" data-path="1-06-15-trigonometry.html">
<a href="1-06-15-trigonometry.html">
Trigonometry
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.6.16" data-path="1-06-16-psuedorandom-numbers.html">
<a href="1-06-16-psuedorandom-numbers.html">
Pseudo-Random Numbers
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</ul>
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.7" data-path="1-07-0-arrays.html">
<a href="1-07-0-arrays.html">
Extra Credit: Arrays and Vectors
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.8" data-path="1-08-0-variables.html">
<a href="1-08-0-variables.html">
Variables, Parameters, and Constants
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.9" data-path="1-09-0-closures.html">
<a href="1-09-0-closures.html">
Extra Credit: Closures
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.10" data-path="1-10-0-functions.html">
<a href="1-10-0-functions.html">
Functions and Macros
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.11" data-path="1-11-0-text-adventure.html">
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Extra Credit: A Simple Text Adventure
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.12" data-path="1-12-0-namespaces.html">
<a href="1-12-0-namespaces.html">
Namespaces, Symbols, Packages, and Systems
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.13" data-path="1-13-0-simple-web-app.html">
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Extra Credit: A Simple Web Application
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.14" data-path="1-14-0-conditionals.html">
<a href="1-14-0-conditionals.html">
Conditionals
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.15" data-path="1-15-0-command-line-utility.html">
<a href="1-15-0-command-line-utility.html">
Extra Credit: Command-Line Utilities
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.16" data-path="1-16-0-map-loop.html">
<a href="1-16-0-map-loop.html">
Mapping and Looping
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<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.17" data-path="1-17-0-iterate.html">
<a href="1-17-0-iterate.html">
Extra Credit: Revisiting Loops with Iterate
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.18" data-path="1-18-0-format.html">
<a href="1-18-0-format.html">
Format Strings
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.19" data-path="1-19-0-dsl.html">
<a href="1-19-0-dsl.html">
Extra Credit: Domain Specific Languages
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="3.1.20" data-path="1-20-0-review.html">
<a href="1-20-0-review.html">
Part One in Review
</a>
</li>
</ul>
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<li class="header">PART TWO</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1" data-path="2-0-0-overview.html">
<a href="2-0-0-overview.html">
The Suffusion of Blue
</a>
<ul class="articles">
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.1" data-path="2-01-0-programming-paradigms.html">
<a href="2-01-0-programming-paradigms.html">
Programming Paradigms
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.2" data-path="2-02-0-regex.html">
<a href="2-02-0-regex.html">
Extra Credit: Regular Expressions
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.3" data-path="2-03-0-objects-control.html">
<a href="2-03-0-objects-control.html">
Objects and Control Structures
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.4" data-path="2-04-0-data-persistence.html">
<a href="2-04-0-data-persistence.html">
Extra Credit: Persistence and Databases
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.5" data-path="2-05-0-extended-types.html">
<a href="2-05-0-extended-types.html">
Extended Types
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.6" data-path="2-06-0-threads-memos-parallel.html">
<a href="2-06-0-threads-memos-parallel.html">
Extra Credit: Concurrency and Memoization
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.7" data-path="2-07-0-logic-and-more-math.html">
<a href="2-07-0-logic-and-more-math.html">
Logic and Advanced Math
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.8" data-path="2-08-0-number-theory.html">
<a href="2-08-0-number-theory.html">
Extra Credit: Number Theory
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.9" data-path="2-09-0-binary-octets-bits.html">
<a href="2-09-0-binary-octets-bits.html">
Binary Streams, Octet-Vectors, and Bit-Vectors
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.10" data-path="2-10-0-improved-text-adventure-engine.html">
<a href="2-10-0-improved-text-adventure-engine.html">
Extra Credit: An Improved Text Adventure Engine
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.11" data-path="2-11-0-conditions.html">
<a href="2-11-0-conditions.html">
Conditions and Error Handling
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.12" data-path="2-12-0-2d-game.html">
<a href="2-12-0-2d-game.html">
Extra Credit: Write a 2D Game
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.13" data-path="2-13-0-compiler.html">
<a href="2-13-0-compiler.html">
The Compiler
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.14" data-path="2-14-0-tree-shaker.html">
<a href="2-14-0-tree-shaker.html">
Extra Credit: Write a Tree-Shaker
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.15" data-path="2-15-0-docs-and-inspection.html">
<a href="2-15-0-docs-and-inspection.html">
Documentation and Inspection
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.16" data-path="2-16-0-foreign-libs.html">
<a href="2-16-0-foreign-libs.html">
Extra Credit: Foreign Libraries in Lisp
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.17" data-path="2-17-0-debugging-testing.html">
<a href="2-17-0-debugging-testing.html">
Debugging and Unit Testing
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.18" data-path="2-18-0-ffi.html">
<a href="2-18-0-ffi.html">
Extra Credit: Write a Foreign Function Interface
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.19" data-path="2-19-0-essential-libs.html">
<a href="2-19-0-essential-libs.html">
Essential Lisp Libraries
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.20" data-path="2-20-0-packaging-libs.html">
<a href="2-20-0-packaging-libs.html">
Extra Credit: Packaging Lisp Libraries
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="4.1.21" data-path="2-21-0-review.html">
<a href="2-21-0-review.html">
Detailed Syntax Review
</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="header">PART THREE</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="5.1" data-path="3-00-00-overview.html">
<a href="3-00-00-overview.html">
Lisp So(u)rcery
</a>
<ul class="articles">
<li class="chapter " data-level="5.1.1" data-path="3-01-00-web-apps.html">
<a href="3-01-00-web-apps.html">
Real-world Web Apps
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="5.1.2" data-path="3-02-00-typesetting.html">
<a href="3-02-00-typesetting.html">
Typesetting
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="5.1.3" data-path="3-03-00-mobile.html">
<a href="3-03-00-mobile.html">
Native Mobile Applications
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="5.1.4" data-path="3-04-00-gui.html">
<a href="3-04-00-gui.html">
Cross-platform Desktop Applications
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="5.1.5" data-path="3-05-00-system-utils.html">
<a href="3-05-00-system-utils.html">
Drivers, Daemons, and System-Utilities
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="5.1.6" data-path="3-06-00-reverse-engineering.html">
<a href="3-06-00-reverse-engineering.html">
Reverse Engineering
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="5.1.7" data-path="3-07-00-graphics.html">
<a href="3-07-00-graphics.html">
Graphics Rendering
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="5.1.8" data-path="3-08-00-gaming.html">
<a href="3-08-00-gaming.html">
OpenGL, SDL, and 3D Game Development
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="5.1.9" data-path="3-09-00-audio.html">
<a href="3-09-00-audio.html">
Audio Generation and Manipulation
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="5.1.10" data-path="3-10-00-data.html">
<a href="3-10-00-data.html">
Data Aggregation and Analysis
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="5.1.11" data-path="3-11-00-cryptosec.html">
<a href="3-11-00-cryptosec.html">
Cryptography and Security
</a>
</li>
<li class="chapter " data-level="5.1.12" data-path="3-12-00-fintech.html">
<a href="3-12-00-fintech.html">
Financial Software and Crypto-Currencies
</a>
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<h1 id="exercise-113">Exercise 1.1.3</h1>
<h2 id="expressions-parentheses-and-return-values">Expressions, Parentheses, and Return Values</h2>
<p>In the pedantic spirit of programming, it is worth reminding you that <em>everything</em> you type at the REPL or in your Lisp source code files will be <em>read as</em> or <em>expanded into</em> an S-Expression and evaluated if possible. Quoting is one way you can disable evaluation for a nested S-Expression, but some S-Expressions are never evaluated. If your Lisp implementation can&apos;t read what you&apos;ve entered as a valid S-Expression, you will normally be dropped into the debugger, the same way that it would if it tried and failed to evaluate.</p>
<pre><code class="lang-lisp">* (+ 1 1)
=&gt; 2 ;; as expected, because it&apos;s a valid S-Expression
* {+ 1 1}
;; this won&apos;t evaluate, because the Lisp reader doesn&apos;t recognize braces
</code></pre>
<p>Common Lisp only has S-Expressions; imperative programming languages, for example, differentiate between &apos;statements&apos; and &apos;expressions&apos;, by ruling that statements cause changes to the environment and return nothing, while expressions are used for their return values. In the tradition of the Lisp-family of programming languages, the syntax is minimalist by design---so in Lisp, even a destructive, in-place operation is represented as an S-Expression. Destructive, in-place operations are by convention named with a prepended &quot;N&quot;, to make it obvious that they have side-effects:</p>
<pre><code class="lang-lisp"><span class="hljs-comment">;; first lets define a couple variables</span>
* (<span class="hljs-name">defvar</span> *test-list-a* (<span class="hljs-name">list</span> <span class="hljs-number">1</span> <span class="hljs-number">2</span> <span class="hljs-number">3</span>))
* (<span class="hljs-name">defvar</span> *test-list-b* (<span class="hljs-name">list</span> &apos;d &apos;e &apos;f))
<span class="hljs-comment">;; append returns a new list from its arguments</span>
* (<span class="hljs-name">append</span> *test-list-a* *test-list-b*)
=&gt; (<span class="hljs-number">1</span> <span class="hljs-number">2</span> <span class="hljs-number">3</span> D E F)
<span class="hljs-comment">;; you can see that the original lists haven&apos;t changed</span>
* *test-list-a*
=&gt; (<span class="hljs-number">1</span> <span class="hljs-number">2</span> <span class="hljs-number">3</span>)
* *test-list-b*
=&gt; (<span class="hljs-name">D</span> E F)
<span class="hljs-comment">;; but now lets do a destructive operation, NCONC (ie, in-place list concatenation)</span>
* (<span class="hljs-name">nconc</span> *test-list-a* *test-list-b*)
=&gt; (<span class="hljs-number">1</span> <span class="hljs-number">2</span> <span class="hljs-number">3</span> D E F)
<span class="hljs-comment">;; the variable&apos;s binding and assignment haven&apos;t changed, but the last cons-cell</span>
<span class="hljs-comment">;; now points to *test-list-b* instead of terminating at NIL</span>
* *test-list-a*
=&gt; (<span class="hljs-number">1</span> <span class="hljs-number">2</span> <span class="hljs-number">3</span> D E F)
</code></pre>
<p>Expressions, in an abstract sense, are <em>expected to</em> return a value; S-Expressions in Common Lisp almost always do, as well, but there are some exceptions. A function call, for example, is expected to return the value of the last form in its body as the value of the entire function:</p>
<pre><code class="lang-lisp"><span class="hljs-comment">;; this is a typical anonymous function call; the last form in its body is (+ x x)</span>
<span class="hljs-comment">;; so the function call returns (+ 2 2) =&gt; 4</span>
* ((<span class="hljs-name">lambda</span> (<span class="hljs-name">x</span>) (<span class="hljs-name">+</span> x x)) <span class="hljs-number">2</span>)
=&gt; <span class="hljs-number">4</span>
<span class="hljs-comment">;; in this function, the return result of (+ x x) is not assigned so it is essentially</span>
<span class="hljs-comment">;; lost; the function body moves on to the next form, (* x x), which is the last form</span>
<span class="hljs-comment">;; of this function body. So the function call only returns (* 10 10) =&gt; 100</span>
* ((<span class="hljs-name">lambda</span> (<span class="hljs-name">x</span>) (<span class="hljs-name">+</span> x x) (<span class="hljs-name">*</span> x x)) <span class="hljs-number">10</span>)
=&gt; <span class="hljs-number">100</span>
<span class="hljs-comment">;; in this function, we capture the return values of both (+ x x) and (* x x), as the</span>
<span class="hljs-comment">;; lexical variables SUM and PRODUCT; using VALUES, we can return multiple values from</span>
<span class="hljs-comment">;; a form instead of just one</span>
* ((<span class="hljs-name">lambda</span> (<span class="hljs-name">x</span>) (<span class="hljs-name">let</span> ((<span class="hljs-name">sum</span> (<span class="hljs-name">+</span> x x)) (<span class="hljs-name">product</span> (<span class="hljs-name">*</span> x x))) (<span class="hljs-name">values</span> sum product))) <span class="hljs-number">10</span>)
=&gt; <span class="hljs-number">20</span> <span class="hljs-number">100</span>
<span class="hljs-comment">;; but calling VALUES without anything gives us... an expression with no return result!</span>
* (<span class="hljs-name">values</span>)
=&gt; <span class="hljs-comment">; No value</span>
</code></pre>
<p>As was introduced in the previous exercise, an S-Expression can either be an <em>Atom</em> or a <em>Cons-Cell</em>. Cons-Cells are represented by Lists to the Reader and by the Printer---but the empty list is treated as an Atom because it requires no consing.</p>
<p>A subset of Atoms are called <em>self-evaluating objects</em>. Since expressions are expected to return a value, these particular objects simply return themselves. By quoting an expression, you are effectively turning the quoted expression into a self-evaluating object.</p>
<pre><code class="lang-lisp">;; these are some self-evaluating objects:
;; strings---
* &quot;a string&quot;
;; characters---
* #\greek_small_letter_lamda
;; numbers
* 42
* #x2A
;; bit-vectors---
* #*1001
</code></pre>
<p>Note: <code>#x2A</code> looks like it returns something different, but it doesn&apos;t---the underlying integer of both the decimal representation <code>42</code> and the hexadecimal representation <code>#x2A</code> are the same number. This can be proved with <code>(eq 42 #x2A)</code>.</p>
<p>Lists are ordered collections of S-Expressions surrounded in a pair of parentheses, with the items separated by whitespace---the <em>amount</em> of whitespace does not matter to the Lisp reader, but there are fairly strict style conventions on how to format your code which will be detailed in the next exercise. Again, non-empty lists are read as cons-cells, and cons-cells are printed as lists. But lists are also a proper data type in Lisp, so it&apos;s important to remember the distinction between <em>representation</em> and the actual <em>implementation</em>.</p>
<pre><code class="lang-lisp"><span class="hljs-comment">;; this:</span>
&apos;(a b c)
<span class="hljs-comment">;; is the same as this:</span>
&apos;(a
b
c)
<span class="hljs-comment">;; and this:</span>
(<span class="hljs-name">list</span> &apos;a &apos;b &apos;c)
</code></pre>
<p>When a list is <em>evaluated</em>, it is treated as code unless it is quoted. The positions of items in the list are both syntactically and semantically meaningful when the list is evaluated as code. These positions will be discussed below, in the section &quot;Prefix Notation.&quot;</p>
<p>Lisp code is meant to be simple and elegant; if you find yourself staring into an impenetrable confusion of parenthesis-chaos, your code is too complex for you to manage. Using techniques for decomposition and refactoring also presented in this book, you will learn how to write beautiful and elegant programs as well as the Common Lisp language itself.</p>
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