Common Lisp programming: from novice to effective developer
What you'll learn
- Understand the Lisp language
- Master the image-based, interactive Lisp workflow
- Develop and deploy real-world applications
- Learn functional constructs, CLOS, macros and more
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) as well as one-person companies (me!). I'll help you learn it effectively.
*I am working on new content. If you subscribe now, you'll get the next videos at the same low price.*
*There are subtitles!*
*Jan, 2022: I bought a new microphone. The new videos will have perfect audio and I'll fix the sound of a couple videos when I have time. Thanks!*
*March, 2022: I published 2 new chapters on iteration and on how to work with projects.*
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 some 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 five years of continuous reading, tweaking, writing, asking and answering questions, discovering libraries, trial and error, releasing open-source libraries and running commercial applications 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. We will develop with either Emacs and Slime or the VSCode and Atom editors, we will learn the syntax, we will see all about functions and macros, the CLOS object system, we'll do some web development 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
![Vincent Dardel](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64"%3E%3C/svg%3E){kind=avatar}
- 4.2 Instructor Rating
- 37 Reviews
- 216 Students
- 1 Course
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 effective 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 five 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. I believe 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, and I fix bugs in third-party libs when I see one. I also had fun working for some time with the Nyxt browser team (I was the second contributor of that time). 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 Lisp right now.
Because this is my first video course (started oct, 2021), and despite practice on draft videos, I will particularly welcome any feedback on it (speed, clarity of explanations, video and audio quality, how much fun is my accent…) (alongside your background in a few words).
Thank you very much, and now let's write some code!
Vincent
---
[*]: 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