enlivend ([info]enlivend) wrote,
@ 2009-09-13 12:51:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend  Next Entry
Entry tags:book, lisp

Lisp book - chapter preview (13-16)

[an emu]

The first batch of four chapters is ready for public consumption.


(3 comments) - (Post a new comment)

Purpose
(Anonymous)
2009-09-14 03:31 pm UTC (link)
I skimmed the AllegroCache chapters, and must confess I was a bit puzzled. This seems like a perfect opportunity to talk about metaclasses, and when and how to use them. Instead, it barely touches on them (an exercise asks the reader to figure it out), and is mostly a quick-start on using the proprietary AllegroCache system. But Franz already has a nice tutorial and reference manual on their website.

I know you said the book will be "you can do more or less "anything" in lisp, and here are some examples", but I don't really understand for whom this is the correct book. If I want to learn the basics of Lisp, I've got SICP and PCL. If I want my mind blown by crazy things you can do in Lisp, I've got Norvig and Graham. If I want to learn CLOS, I've got AMOP and Keene. If I want to learn the specifics of AllegroCache, I've got Franz's documentation.

I guess this sounds pretty negative. I don't mean it to be. I just don't think I can do a proper review of this until I understand who exactly would be reading it. Who picked up this book, and why?

(Reply to this)

That supposed to be Chameleon, no?
(Anonymous)
2009-09-14 09:56 pm UTC (link)
I didn't not read your book (sorry) but most of O'Reilly readers will do that (fortunately?).

Is that bird will be appeared on the front? Come on, we know it should be a Chameleon like one in old ACM article. A colourful Chameleon(and explain why it has to be in the first paragraph of your introduction)

I wouldn't buy it if the bird is on the front! :-)

(Reply to this)

Too many things?
(Anonymous)
2009-09-30 10:10 am UTC (link)
I like the idea of the book in general. Some of the style issues seem a bit forced - I'm not sure using so many contractions fits your voice, but that might be a bit of O'Reilly style you can't do anything about.

My main concern is that in the AllegroCache and the MP chapters you are trying to do too many things at once e.g. a bit of database, a bit of persistence, a bit of lisp,... I can understand you want to motivate the contents of the chapter, but by the time you have explained e.g. what concurrency is, why you might want it, what a lock is, you've run out of room. Also, the database example, while kind of cute (verging on the self-indulgent), is actually quite boring.

Perhaps one approach would be to take a well-known example from a java/c#/python/whatever book and show how that would be solved with the lisp library you're covering. If people want to know what a DB is, or why to use (or not) threads, they can go elsewhere.

I thought the Memory chapter was great.

(Reply to this)

(3 comments) - (Post a new comment)

Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…