Questions tagged [lisp]
Lisp is a (family of) general purpose functional programming language(s), based on the lambda calculus, and with the ability to manipulate source code as a data structure.
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Scheme's define in Common Lisp
In Common Lisp, we have to use the let form to declare a new lexically-scoped variable. This means that the code either looks like that written in C89 (all variables declared on top of scope), or ...
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Why are Lisp programs a sequence of S-expressions and not a single list?
This is quite basic question that started puzzling me recently while studying Lisp (and derivatives). I have read some Lisp books and web sites and this subject is somewhat obscured by other Lisp ...
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Best Practice - Where to declare variables in Common Lisp?
Generally in procedural/imperative languages, it's best practice to place variable declarations as close to usage as possible.
This seems a little hazy in lisp, considering more code is used if there ...
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Why are functions in Emacs so large? [closed]
I am a beginner in ELisp, but have programmed in C++ and a number of other programming languages before. My rule of thumb (and I think it is a common one) that a function should fit on the screen. ...
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Lisp: circular structure printing through user-defined print methods: what are the requirements?
In a Lisp dialect, I've implemented ANSI-CL-like support for printing objects such that their circular and shared structure is encoded. This is enabled by the special variable *print-circle*. ...
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How can a compiler be written for a language that allows rewriting code at runtime (such as Lisp macros)?
There are some programming languages, like the many dialects of Lisp, that allow for macro-metaprogramming: rewriting and altering sections of code before the code is run.
It is relatively trivial to ...
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Can Lisp keywords be protected?
Why aren't lisp keywords protected?
For example,
(define a 3)
(define define +) #makes define useless
(define a 1) #outputs 4, instead of assigning 1 to a.
Is this flexibility so important?
Or even ...
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Are there any JSON based notations for Access Control Lists? (Alternative to S-Expression)
I'm looking for a notation that is familiar to modern developers and can supersede s-Notation. (additional insight into Rivest's proposal of s-Expression is here)
Is there any Swagger, JSON or other ...
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In which order should lisp functions be defined?
In which order should code in a single lisp file be organised? Is there any common style guideline that allows other lisp programmers to easily understand code?
Googling for lisp style guideline ...
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Computer Architectures NOT based on arrays [closed]
Wadler's original paper on Monads for Functional Programming ( Haskell ) ,he says
Another question with a long history is whether it is desirable to base programs on array update. Since so much ...
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Scheme : Lambda inside quoted list is unbound
I'm programming a small lisp/scheme interpreter and I came across the following situation :
When a quoted list contains lambdas, they are not parsed as lambdas.
Here is a sample code (live on repl....
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What is the equivalent of The Little Lisper project in Haskell?
In the book The Little Lisper, you implement a minimal Scheme in 10 Chapters that is capable of interpreting any chapter in the book.
To me it seems you could do the same for a 'minimal subset of a ...
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What practical problem results from lack of hygienic macros in Clojure?
I've heard that Clojure macros are easier to write but not as reliable as Racket's hygienic macros. My question has 2 parts:
How does gensym differ from hygienic macros?
What do Racket macros provide ...
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What Lisp data structure to use?
I am studying different language games and trying to implement them in Common Lisp. Currently, I am studying a game which studies the relation between forms and meanings. An agent needs to store the ...
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How to avoid loop in a dept-search in a graph?
I must implement , in Lisp , a depth-search algorithm in an implict graph (namely a graph where I have the starting node, the goal node, and the successor function ,f, that give a node create his ...
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What about LISP, if anything, makes it easier to implement macro systems?
I'm learning Scheme from the SICP and I'm getting the impression that a big part of what makes Scheme and, even more so, LISP special is the macro system. But, since macros are expanded at compile-...
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`values` vs `list` for returning multiple values from Lisp form
What's the difference between using (values …) versus (list …) (or literally '(one two three …)) to return multiple values from a lambda (or other implicit progn)? Does it create some special glue to ...
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Reference counting & GC in LISP [closed]
What is the main method for reclaiming the memory in LISP? Does LISP really need garbage collection? Would not reference counts suffice?
I just wanted to know whether reference counts are enough or ...
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How do you make decorators as powerful as macros?
Quick background: I am designing a Pythonic language that I want to be as powerful as Lisp while remaining easy to use. And by "powerful", I mean "flexible and expressive".
I've just been introduced ...
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Object-Oriented equivalent of LISP's progn function?
I'm currently writing a LISP parser that iterates through some AutoLISP code and does its best to make it a little easier to read (changing prefix notation to infix notation, changing setq assignments ...
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What is the most efficient method in converting AutoLISP legacy code to C#?
I am engaged in a project that works mainly in AutoCAD to design and manufacture prefabricated building components such as roofing trusses. One of our goals is to redesign a program that was written ...
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Why is studying a Lisp interpreter in lisp so important?
I have seen many CS curriculums and learning suggestions for new programmers that call for the aspiring programmer to study a Lisp interpreter that is specifically written in Lisp. All these sites ...
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What features does MIT-Scheme have that make it ideal for SICP?
I've been thinking about trying to get through the SICP again, this time well-armed with a better idea of what the SICP is meant to accomplish, and being older and wiser than my first attempt back in ...
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How to implement a branch-and-bound in a functional programming language?
I am trying to write a branch and bound search on the set of all functions f: D -> R, where the domain size is small (|D| ~ 20) and the range is much bigger (|R| ~ 2^20). Initially, I came up with the ...
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What's the difference between lists constructed by quote and those constructed by cons in Scheme?
(define ls1 '((1 . 2) 1 . 2))
(set-car! (car ls1) 6)
ls1
(define ls2 (cons '(1 . 2) '(1 . 2)))
(set-car! (car ls2) 6)
ls2
After set-car!ing, ls1 will be ((6 . 2) 1 . 2) and ls2 ((6 . 2) 6 . 2). It ...
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Is Lisp the first language to adopt structured programming?
I couldn't find any links or books claiming that Lisp is the first programming language to adopt structured programming (actually, most of them don't even mention Lisp at all), but if conditionals ...
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How can Lisp produce an iterative process from a recursive procedure?
I am starting to learn Lisp, using the SICP book. The authors mention that a procedure (i.e. function) can be recursive or iterative. Additionally, the process those procedures will generate will also ...
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Hoes dows the productivity incidence of Lisp and OCaml compare? [closed]
I am about to start a new project and I cannot decide if I should pick OCaml or Lisp for the project. My main concern is about the difference of productivity — if any.
I program OCaml since 1998 ...
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Lisp/Clojure: Removing unnecessary parentheses through conventions
I am fascinated to Lisp as it is simple yet powerful. I am just a beginner and I know there have been lots of discussions on removing parentheses from Lisp and its dialects. Yet I request Lisp ninja's ...
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Why we say Lisp are Human oriented and Fortran are Machine oriented？ [closed]
Lisp and Fortran were the trunks of two separate evolutionary trees,
one rooted in math and one rooted in machine architecture.
I see this in Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age....
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How does a chess engine decide what move to make?
I'm writing a simple chess engine in LISP. I actually know how the engine decide the move, it evaluates and reads some opening books. But that's not what i mean. This is my design.
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Python decorators and Lisp macros
When looking Python decorators someone made the statement, that they are as powerful as Lisp macros (particularly Clojure).
Looking at the examples given in PEP 318 it looks to me as if they are just ...
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The Lisp in Gnu
Since the GNU project is celebrating its anniversary, and the initial announcement for GNU is linked to (http://www.gnu.org/gnu/initial-announcement.en.html) all over the place, I reread it and I ...
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Obscurity of Lisp in collaborative projects [closed]
I'm playing with the idea of learning Scheme but I have a few misgivings.
From what I understand Lisp makes heavy use of macros that allow programmers to drastically change the language itself. I ...
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XSLT and possible alternatives [closed]
I had a look at XSLT for transforming one XML file into another one (HTML, etc.). Now while I see that there are benefits to XSLT (being a standardized and used tool) I am reluctant for a couple of ...
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What are the advantages of using LISP and Haskell? Will they make me a better programmer? [closed]
I know Lisp and Haskell are logic and functional programming languages respectively, but what exactly does this mean? How do they differ from other languages? I've heard that learning these will make ...
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Does Lisp still have any special feature which has NOT been adopted by other programming languages?
Does Lisp still have any special feature which has NOT been adopted by other programming languages?
By Lisp, I mean all the Lisp programming languages as a whole. I've been told how amazing Lisp is ...
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Does macros support make Scala a Lisp dialect?
I've read recently that macro support in Scala is now official. I checked the documentation page and they are reminiscent to the LISP ones. In one of his essays Paul Graham writes that when "you add ...
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Is it possible to compile a higher level language to readable C++? [closed]
C++ is a great language in many ways, but some things in particular are cumbersome to write without an IDE. As a VIM user, it would be very interesting if I had access to a higher level language which ...
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Multiple Dispatch and CLOS
I have never written software in Common Lisp, but in Scheme and Clojure as well as C++ and Python. Yet I have had a look at the Common Lisp Object System (CLOS) in Common Lisp and Dylan. Now when ...
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Is it technically possible to write a JS interpreter using Lisp macro readers, in the browser?
Using macros readers, it's possible to interpret JavaScript, and have it compiled just like normal Common Lisp code. Hence getting the benefits of Lisp implementations, notably their performance. ...
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s expression representation for c
Experimenting with various lisps lately (clojure especially) i have wondered if there are any s expression based representations of (subsets) of c, so you could use lisp/closure to write macros and ...
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What makes Common Lisp "big"? [closed]
I've been learning both Common Lisp and Racket, and one thing that I consistently hear is that Racket is a much "smaller" language than Common Lisp. I was wondering what this really meant. As far as I ...
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Which algorithms typify Lisp's power? [closed]
Similar question here (but not the same) because I am interested in which specific algorithms work particularly well in Lisp.
Lisp tutorials always give the example of finding factorials, but wanting ...
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Could we build a functional computer?
As mush as FP has done, in the end, all our programs are structured.
That is, it doesn't matter how pure or functional we make a them - they are always translated to assembly,
so what actually runs ...
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Are square brackets and curly braces in Clojure still S-expressions?
I am trying to learn Lisp and looking at all the Lisps out there and their differences.
I see that in some implementations of Scheme, you can use square brackets interchangeably with round brackets ...
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Ring of numbers where adjacent entries sum up to a prime
Given a number n, find a permutation of the numbers 1...n such that all adjacent entries sum up to primes. If such a permutation does not exist, throw an error.
Is there a purely-functional way to do ...
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In what programming language did "let" first appear?
I was wondering about the origins of the "let" used in Lisp, Clojure, and Haskell. Does anyone know which language it appeared in first?
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What are the practical benefits of LISP like syntax which Clojure uses over Java like syntax of Scala?
I spent couple of months learning Scala and got overwhelmed by number of different constructs it had,
After looking at partial functions, partially-applied functions, pattern matching, actor syntax,
I ...
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What is the difference between a stock-hardware and a micro-coded machine in "A Critique of Common Lisp"?
I was reading this article: A Critique of Common Lisp and finding it hard to make out the precise definition of "stock-hardware machine" and its difference with "micro-coded" machines. I tried to ...
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