Subject: Re: Learning CLOS?
From: Erik Naggum <clerik@naggum.no>
Date: 1998/04/11
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3101324328261855@naggum.no>


* Kelly Murray
| "Object-Oriented Programming in Common Lisp: A Programmers Guide to CLOS",
| by Sonya Keene, published by Addison Wesley  ISBN 0-201-17589-4
| 
| Written in 1988, it's 10 years old, but nothing has changed since it was
| written. I don't know if it's actually still in print.  In my opinion,
| it's still one of the best books about CLOS.

  let me second that.  I'm lucky enough to have a friend who has been
  interested in Common Lisp many years more than I was able to take
  advantage of it, and he had a spare copy of this book when I vented my
  frustration with CLOS some years back.  the problem with the CLOS chapter
  in CLtL2 is that you have to know how it all basically works before it
  makes any sense, and I was unable to understand much from it.  (CLOS felt
  almost like C++.)  Sonya Keene managed in a very nice way to demonstrate
  why the power is needed as well as to show how to command it for simple
  and advanced cases alike.  after reading Keene, CLtL2 made sense and
  actually became readable, although I _much_ prefer the ANSI specification
  these days.  and thanks to the Harlequin Group and Kent Pitman for making
  the HyperSpec¹ available; programming by specification has never been
  easier.  the standard is usable as introductory material the way it is
  organized, but Keene will guide you the necessary steps to be able to
  fully appreciate the excellent reference materials.

  I wonder what it would take to make this book electronically available.
  Addison-Wesley does not appear to want to reprint it.

  the chapters on CLOS in Paul Graham: ANSI Common Lisp made _me_ feel he
  was brooding on a book dedicated as much to CLOS as On Lisp was dedicated
  to macros and didn't want to tell too much too early.  others have found
  his book as valuable as I found Sonya Keene's, so maybe it's just a
  matter of which book you read first.

#:Erik
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¹ http://www.harlequin.com/books/HyperSpec/
-- 
  religious cult update in light of new scientific discoveries:
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