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— Chris McAvoy, Chicago Python Users Group

Lisp is often thought of as an academic language, but it need not be. This is the first book that introduces Lisp as a language for the real world.

Practical Common Lisp presents a thorough introduction to Common Lisp, providing you with an overall understanding of the language features and how they work. Over a third of the book is devoted to practical examples such as the core of a spam filter and a web application for browsing MP3s and streaming them via the Shoutcast protocol to any standard MP3 client software (e.g., iTunes, XMMS, or WinAmp). In other "practical" chapters, author Peter Seibel demonstrates how to build a simple but flexible in-memory database, how to parse binary files, and how to build a unit test framework in 26 lines of code.

Average Customer Rating:

Perfect companion to Lispworks LISP IDE for Windows

Customer Rating:

I read Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP) when it was first published. This inspired me to learn LISP (at least to the extent that was needed to understand the examples in that outstanding book). For a long time I put off using LISP for any problem solving because there was no convenient development environment on Windows that I could use to develop easily. The situation now has changed with the availability of Lispworks Personal, which is free for a minimally crippled development environment. I needed a proper reference work which I could use to re-familiarise myself with LISP. SICP is based on Scheme, an excellent dialect, but not Common Lisp, the version which seems to have become dominant. Practical Common Lisp is that book. Professionally written by a real expert, well laid out, accessible relative beginners such as I, but with a depth of detail that will surely make it a valuable addition to the bookshelves of the experts.

wordy though useful and expansive	Customer Rating:
Describes macros well, has plenty of examples and very well written text, very well thought out text. This and ANSI Common Lisp complement one another very well. (I've heard Norvig's book is highly touted too, though I've not seen it in real life.)

Quite Possibly the Best Language Tutorial Ever Written

Customer Rating:

I've studied a number of (computer) languages over the years, but one that I've never spent the time to really learn was Lisp. So, sitting down with this book one long weekend, I decided to give it a shot. What I found -- besides the fact that Lisp is a fascinating language that incorporates so many ideas that are only beginning to be incorporated in more "modern" languages -- is that Peter Seibel has written one of the best language tutorials that I have ever used. His style is conversational and clear, with the information broken up into easily digestible chunks. You may start this book thinking Lisp is just a hard-to-read language with too many parenthesis, but you will finish it with a new view of how computer languages should really work.

Very helpful and practical	Customer Rating:
I found this to be an excellent book. Very helpful and practical. I found it complemented nicely the more theoretical "ANSI Common Lisp" book by Paul Graham.

A great beginner/intermediate text

Customer Rating:

If you've been using lisp for years already, the value of this book is probably more on the minimal side of things (although I suspect even a seasoned lisper might find it useful from time to time). However, if you're trying to get a grip on the ins and outs of coding in lisp, this book is a great place to begin. I find the book well-written and well-organized. Perhaps the biggest plus is that the book isn't overly 'dumbed down' and goes into sufficient depth to enable one to move beyond simple exercises at the REPL. It is also nice to have a hard copy and the online version both available.