Lisp has been hailed as the world’s most powerful programming language, but its cryptic syntax and academic reputation can be enough to scare off even experienced programmers. Those dark days are finally over—Land of Lisp brings the power of functional programming to the people! With his brilliantly quirky comics and out-of-this-world games, longtime Lisper Conrad Barski teaches you the mysteries of Common Lisp. You’ll start with the basics, like list manipulation, I/O, and recursion, then move on to more complex topics like macros, higher order programming, and domain-specific languages. Then, when your brain overheats, you can kick back with an action-packed comic book interlude! Along the way you’ll create (and play) games like Wizard Adventure, a text adventure with a whiskey-soaked twist, and Grand Theft Wumpus, the most violent version of Hunt the Wumpus the world has ever seen. You'll learn to: –Master the quirks of Lisp’s syntax and semantics –Write concise and elegant functional programs –Use macros, create domain-specific languages, and learn other advanced Lisp techniques –Create your own web server, and use it to play browser-based games –Put your Lisp skills to the test by writing brain-melting games like Dice of Doom and Orc Battle With Land of Lisp, the power of functional programming is yours to wield.

Racket is a descendant of Lisp, a programming language renowned for its elegance, power, and challenging learning curve. But while Racket retains the functional goodness of Lisp, it was designed with beginning programmers in mind. Realm of Racket is your introduction to the Racket language. In Realm of Racket, you'll learn to program by creating increasingly complex games. Your journey begins with the Guess My Number game and coverage of some basic Racket etiquette. Next you'll dig into syntax and semantics, lists, structures, and conditionals, and learn to work with recursion and the GUI as you build the Robot Snake game. After that it's on to lambda and mutant structs (and an Orc Battle), and fancy loops and the Dice of Doom. Finally, you'll explore laziness, AI, distributed games, and the Hungry Henry game. As you progress through the games, chapter checkpoints and challenges help reinforce what you've learned. Offbeat comics keep things fun along the way. As you travel through the Racket realm, you'll: –Master the quirks of Racket's syntax and semantics –Learn to write concise and elegant functional programs –Create a graphical user interface using the 2htdp/image library –Create a server to handle true multiplayer games Realm of Racket is a lighthearted guide to some serious programming. Read it to see why Racketeers have so much fun!

Highly accessible treatment covers cons cell structures, evaluation rules, programs as data, recursive and applicable programming styles. Nearly 400 illustrations, answers to exercises, "toolkit" sections, and a variety of complete programs. 1990 edition.

* Treats LISP as a language for commercial applications, not a language for academic AI concerns. This could be considered to be a secondary text for the Lisp course that most schools teach . This would appeal to students who sat through a LISP course in college without quite getting it – so a "nostalgia" approach, as in "wow-lisp can be practical..." * Discusses the Lisp programming model and environment. Contains an introduction to the language and gives a thorough overview of all of Common Lisp’s main features. * Designed for experienced programmers no matter what languages they may be coming from and written for a modern audience—programmers who are familiar with languages like Java, Python, and Perl. * Includes several examples of working code that actually does something useful like Web programming and database access.

An introduction to the Racket functional programming language and DrRacket development environment to explore topics in mathematics (mostly recreational) and computer science. At last, a lively guided tour through all the features, functions, and applications of the Racket programming language. You'll learn a variety of coding paradigms, including iterative, object oriented, and logic programming; create interactive graphics, draw diagrams, and solve puzzles as you explore Racket through fun computer science topics--from statistical analysis to search algorithms, the Turing machine, and more. Early chapters cover basic Racket concepts like data types, syntax, variables, strings, and formatted output. You'll learn how to perform math in Racket's rich numerical environment, and use programming constructs in different problem domains (like coding solutions to the Tower of Hanoi puzzle). Later, you'll play with plotting, grapple with graphics, and visualize data. Then, you'll escape the confines of the command line to produce animations, interactive games, and a card trick program that'll dazzle your friends. You'll learn how to: Use DrRacket, an interactive development environment (IDE) for writing programs Compute classical math problems, like the Fibonacci sequence Generate two-dimensional function plots and create drawings using graphics primitives Import and export data to and from Racket using ports, then visually analyze it Build simple computing devices (pushdown automaton, Turing machine, and so on) that perform tasks Leverage Racket's built-in libraries to develop a command line algebraic calculator Racket Programming the Fun Way is just like the language itself--an embodiment of everything that makes programming interesting and worthwhile, and that makes you a better programmer.