Subject: Re: newbie: using packages and CLOS
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no>
Date: 31 Aug 2002 13:16:01 +0000
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3239788561495055@naggum.no>

* Harald Hanche-Olsen
| Indeed.  But how do you learn which is which?

  You either have a good mentor or you think about the functionality offered
  by the various macros and functions and realize when and where to use them.
  This is a long-winded process, of course.

| CLOS is an extreme example - learning CLOS from the specification was a much
| too daunting task for me given the amount of time I can make available to
| such tasks.  Now that I finally got around to reading Sonja Keene's book I
| can probably go back and learn the rest from the hyperspec as I need to, but
| you need that kind of kickstart to get going.  (This from a guy who once
| learned Simula from reading the Common Base - but my aging brain is no
| longer up to such feats.)

  That pretty much mimicks my development with both Simula and CLOS.  I am not
  sure about the Common Base, but I got hold of a brief report on the language
  from Norsk Regnecentral and aced the Simula course at the U of Oslo.  CLOS
  was basically impenetrable before Keene, even with the aid of the 3rd edition
  of Winston & Horn.

-- 
Erik Naggum, Oslo, Norway

Act from reason, and failure makes you rethink and study harder.
Act from faith, and failure makes you blame someone and push harder.