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Lisp from Nothing, Second Edition


ulu Press, 2025 – 344 pages – 19 figures – 6" x 9" format – free code Order paperback book at Lulu.com Order hardcover book at Lulu.com * Order PDF copy at Lulu.com Get the source code from the book Read a few pages (PDF) Errata (First Edition) Watch Nino Ivanov's Review on Youtube This text plays with the theme of minimal LISP by providing several implementations from a simple metacircular evaluator to a full compiler that emits a single, self-contained C program. The discussion is embedded in reflections on what hacking looked like in the early days of LISP.

What was LISP hacking like in the age of punch cards, teletypes, and mainframe computers? This text plays with the theme of minimal LISP by providing several implementations from a simple metacircular evaluator to a full compiler that emits a single, self-contained C program. The second edition adds a chapter on the relationship between LISP and Lambda Calculus, introduces quasiquotation in the section about macros, fixes various small typos and mistakes, and smoothes out some of the prose.

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