Early versions of Lisp programming language and Dartmouth BASIC would be examples interpreter language (parse the source code and perform its behavior directly.). However, Common lisp (Current version) is a compiler language. Note that most Lisp compilers are not Just In Time compilers. You as a programmer can invoke the compiler, for example in Common Lisp with the functions COMPILE and ...
1 Today lisp is used AI System where the sympolic Data explanation is used.Mainly Lisp is devloped by show the functioning of List. but it use as a symbolic representative language
78 “Lisp is a programmable programming language.” — John Foderaro, CACM, September 1991 Here’s my view: On the surface, Lisp is a nice, simple functional programming language. There’s almost no syntax, and all the pieces fit together in logical ways.
In summary, learning Lisp (or Scheme) may not yield many practical applications beyond AI but it is an extremely valuable learning experience, as many others have stated. Programming in a functional language like Lisp will also help you think recursively (if you've had trouble with recursion in other languages, this could be a great help).
Learning LISP is a good way to learn functional programming effectively, and is often used as an introductory language for undergraduate students. Many people feel that Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, which uses the Scheme dialect of Lisp, is a book that should be on every programmers shelf.
Lisp is a great language for exploratory programming, for implementing difficult algorithms, for self-modifying and often modified code. In other words, for research code.
Ansi Common Lisp by Paul Graham is a good book. I think it might be out of print, so your best bet to get it via Amazon. I got the book for a "Natural Language Processing" class I took my sophomore year in college. We had to write the programing projects in LISP, and so I needed to learn Lisp quickly. The book helped me quite a bit.
Lisp is not a programming language, but a family of programming languages. Clojure is a functional Lisp. On the other hand, Common Lisp does support functional features, but the use of imperative techniques is more pervasive in Common Lisp programs.
To me (and I guess, to most others coming from different programming backgrounds than Lisp), the formatting shown in sample 2 would be easier to read. Is there any particular reason why Lispers prefer the sample 1 style?
22 It seems that the software language skills most sought for embedded devices and robots are C, C++, and LISP. Why haven't more recent languages made inroads into these applications? For example, Erlang would seem particularly well-suited to robotic applications, since it makes concurrent programming easier and allows hot swapping of code.
