Newbie in Lisp

[MrGoat]

Hi all,


I am a newbie in Lisp and computing in general. Have only taken a college level intro to C++ class. Does anyone know where I can download a version for Lisp for Windows ? And what are some good resources for introduction to Lisp ?


Thanks alot

Victor

[nuntius]

We have some of this covered in the FAQ

[MrGoat]

After reading the FAQ, Ive been trying to find some good implementations and got directed to this site : http://clisp.sourceforge.net/ - an ANSI Common Lisp Implementation. Does anyone know where the download links are ? Can't seem to find them ...

[smithzv]

The download links are the entire right hand column. If you are using Windows, look under Cygwin, although I hear that others have gotten it running other ways. The Cygwin install method basically goes like this: Install Cygwin, it will ask what other software you want to install during the setup, choose clisp from their packages, it will be downloaded and installed. Run it from the bash prompt you get when you run cygwin by typing "clisp". That's how it worked for me last time I used Cygwin, which was admittedly a long time ago.

[Indecipherable]

CLisp works perfectly fine without Cygwin.

[MrGoat]

Ok, Ive downloaded CYGwin and something called a "Subversion" ( http://trac.clozure.com/ccl/wiki/WindowsNotes ) , and briefly read through a few of the introductory chapters , though I have to say I can't really understand much of the technical terms. Any ideas on what I should be doing next ?

[smithzv]

CLisp works perfectly fine without Cygwin.

Like I said, I haven't been windows side in a long while. Please elaborate. I assume that you mean the one that works via/was built with MinGW? I looked at the download links again and found that version, but it is a bit hidden.

Ok, Ive downloaded CYGwin and something called a "Subversion" ( http://trac.clozure.com/ccl/wiki/WindowsNotes ) , and briefly read through a few of the introductory chapters , though I have to say I can't really understand much of the technical terms. Any ideas on what I should be doing next ?

That link points to a completely different implementation of Common Lisp, so I will assume that this was just a mistake. Remember from the FAQ, there are many different implementations of Common Lisp. CLISP is one, CCL or Clozure CL is another. If you want to install CLISP, you do not want to be looking at a page for Clozure CL. If you misspoke before about wanting to install CLISP and actually want to install Clozure CL, see the end of this post.

Subversion is a program for handling source code. You either download the program Subversion or you download another program's source code, using Subversion invoked by "svn", from a Subversion repository. Either way, don't worry about it yet, you are not at the point where you should be trying to compile from source.

Two options with CLISP that I can see:

1) Download and run: http://sourceforge.net/projects/clisp/f ... e/download
2) Download and run: http://cygwin.com/setup.exe, When you run this, it will ask you what software you want to install/un-install. Find clisp and check it. It will probably check other things for you as they are dependencies, ignore that, and continue with the install.

I am listing them in the order that they should probably be preferred. Cygwin makes a little POSIX style mock up for the programs it has. This means that it is a bit of a larger install/more involved install, but it is fully automated if I remember correctly.

-----------------------

If you actually wanted to install Clozure CL:

CCL people apparently distribute binaries via Subversion. Assuming Subversion is set up, do this from a command line (run cmd.exe I think):

svn co http://svn.clozure.com/publicsvn/openmc ... indows/ccl

This will create a directory called "ccl" within the directory you are in. Inside are two executables, one with a 32 in its name and another with a 64. Choose the 32 one if you are running win32 and the 64 for if you are running a 64 bit windows. I think that should work. Unlike the CLISP install, I have never run CCL on windows, so I hope this works.

[MrGoat]

K Thanks alot! Think i got the thing up and running.

Do you guys remember those old warcraft 2 missions? Before every mission started , there would be a short mission briefing with some text scrolling down from top to bottom + a short voice over and a start button at the bottom right. Trying to create a single page like that - I have written the text for the first mission of a short game I am writing but have no idea how to even start programming something like that. Any hints/tips/suggestions on where to start will be appreciated.

[smithzv]

I don't. But your project sounds fairly video game-ish, which probably means you are going to want something like OpenGL at some level, you also might think about SDL. Many interfaces for these libraries are available for your Lisp implementation. The way you should install them is using Quicklisp (http://www.quicklisp.org/). Got get, install it, use it to install other bits. As for sources of information for programming graphically heavy applications (ahem, games) with Lisp, a good place to start is: http://lispgames.org/

[MrGoat]

Have been reading up on Windows API which I understand would be able
to help create the "scroll" effect of the mission briefing using
something called a "Canvas" object and "Paints and Brushes" --- Does
anyone know where I could download one that is compatible with Lisp ?

Thanks alot .....


MrGoat