Re: Need Help Getting Running with LIsp and Emacs

[Anselm Helbig]

At 10 Mar 2006 21:11:11 -0800,
Jacob.Lyles@gmail.com wrote:
> 
> I recently started using Linux, coming from a Windows XP background.
> I'm intrigued by the programming language "Lisp" but I have no idea how
> to start programming in it. I need a "For Dummies" guide.

Lisp is actually a whole family of programming languages. Emacs itself
has a lisp interpreter at its core, which you can play around a
bit. The lisp dialect emacs uses is called "emacs lisp" or elisp for
short, which is different from Common Lisp, of which SBCL is an
implementation of. But the basics the same, so the elisp intro that
Anna mentioned should serve you well.

For Common Lisp I can recommend "Practical Common Lisp" by Peter
Seibel, available from http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/. From his page
you can also get Lispbox, a prepackaged common lisp environment. 

> I'm trying to get emacs, SLIME, and SBCL to play nice with each other
> on my new Gentoo Linux system. I got some tips over Usenet where some
> people told me to edit my ".emacs file". Where is this file located,
> and how would I go about editing it?

Now, that's an easy one. Type 

        C-x C-f .emacs<RETURN>

where C-x actually means Control-x. 

Maybe you should take the emacs tutorial (C-h t) and get familiar with
the info-reader (C-h i), so you can browse the (excellent!) online
documentation easily.

These functions are of course also available from the menu bar. 8-)

Hope that gets you started, 

happy hacking!

Anselm