Common Lisp programming: from novice to effective developer
What you'll learn
- Understand the Lisp language
- Master the image-based, interactive Lisp workflow
- Use Common Lisp for day-to-day scripting
- Develop and deploy real-world applications
- Learn functional constructs, error handling; will cover CLOS and more
- Understand Lisp macros, symbolic computation and compile-time computing
Requirements
- Basic knowledge of a programming language (know what variables and functions are)
Description
Common Lisp is an awesome language. It has pioneered a LOT of concepts in computer science, and while old it is still used in the industry by Big Corps (all quantum computing ones, Google) as well as one-person companies (me!). I'll help you learn it efficiently.
NEW: I just published my 18 videos about MACROS in September, 2023!
There are subtitles.
The sound quality dramatically improved since the beginning in 2021. The new videos (iteration, projects, conditions, macros…) have perfect audio. I re-recorded the sound of 3 old videos (last update: January, 2023). The sound of some videos have glitches (some remaining in the "functions" chapter). I'll re-record more step by step. Thanks!
I publish complementary videos on Youtube (vindarel channel).
If you subscribe now, you'll get the next chapters at the same price.
Lisp the language is different than the Algol/C-like family of languages, and the Lisp development environments still offer unmatched capabilities: interactive, image-based development experience, while getting type warnings and errors at compile time in a fraction of a second, speed in the same group of C, Rust and Java (while sweating less to get to the result), while ensuring stability across decades, etc, etc, etc.
However, you are about to enter a big new world. There are rough edges, the information is sometimes spread apart and hard to discover, despite my continuous work on collaborative resources.
So, I gathered my knowledge and experience of more than six years of continuous reading, tweaking, writing, asking and answering questions, discovering libraries, trial and error, releasing open-source libraries, starter kits and demo projects, contributing to ambitious projects and running commercial services into this series of videos.
We will learn the language, the tools, the most important pieces of the ecosystem, in order to be able to develop a Common Lisp software from the ground up. I will develop with Emacs and Slime (you can use Atom/Pulsar, Vim, VSCode, Sublime, Lem and more), we will learn the syntax, we will see all about functions and macros, all the iteration constructs, error and condition handling, the CLOS object system (upcoming), we'll do some web development (recorded, upcoming in late September 2023) and we will build binaries and deploy our applications to production servers, etc.
I am genuinely happy to share all that with you in this new video format and I wish you a fun journey.
PS: pro tip: if you find a video too slow or if you think you know the content, watch it at speed x1.25 or x1.5. However I recommend to not skip content, as I give tips here and there and inside a section we build on the previous video's content.
Who this course is for:
- Students of computer science who want to discover why Lisp still has un-matched alien technology inside.
- Young(ish) profesional developers who feel they deserve a more fun, comfy, compiled and fast programming language.
- Python or JavaScript programmers frustrated by the unstability of their ecosystem.
- Your friend or colleague.
Instructor
After years of Python (and JS) programming in the industry, I got tired of the instability of the ecosystem, the lack of type warnings, its slowness, the GIL… then I finally got hooked into Common Lisp. It was not an easy start, and it is not always a perfect wedding, but I am an order of magnitude more satisfied with CL than with Python. I am much more productive writing a Lisp program. It is also much more fun.
I now use CL for all my personal projects as well as for my new commercial applications, either "glue" scripts or web apps, that are used by real clients. I run my own small business [*].
During the last years, I have contributed a lot to the Lisp ecosystem, especially with my written contributions to the Common Lisp Cookbook. They represent the work of reading books, all resources I can find on a topic, experience and discussion with other developers, in order to deliver an easy-to-follow recipe, straight to the point, examples first. This was lacking on the internet for CL (just look at the iteration page and compare).
I develop and maintain Lisp libraries, software, project skeletons and demos, I fix bugs in third-party libraries when I see one and I also have fun contributing to ambitious projects (the Lem editor, the Nyxt browser…). You can check my Github profile (vindarel) and my blog (lisp-journey).
I now explore the video format, where I condense and organize even more the information, step by step. I truly think this is the most effective way to start with Common Lisp right now.
Since I launched this course (October, 2021) I read your feedback with the greatest interest, since it helps me deliver a better content. Feel free to send me comments and share how your Lisp journey is going (alongside your CS background in a few words).
Thank you very much, and now let's write some code!
Vincent
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[*]: I don't earn millions so your support through Udemy helps me and helps consolidate the CL ecosystem. Thanks!
profile picture: cover of Byte magazine