

Ask HN: How long does it take to learn Common Lisp - prtamil

How long does it take to learn common lisp, to apply your ideas ..., For me it took more than 3 months ..,May be i'm not working hard. Just started reading Commonlisp Code such as CL-ppcre.
It seems i have learned nothing ... What about you guys ?
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michael_dorfman
How long is a piece of string?

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mark_l_watson
I can't answer that question. I wrote a Common Lisp book for Springer Verlag
in the late 1980s and I don't consider myself to be an expert after years of
using CL for work. I am not being modest, it is just that I have worked with
Lisper's who were much better than I was.

I do enjoy learning and using new programming languages but I learn them a bit
at a time by using them in projects.

So I would advise you to not force it, choose small projects and start coding.
After a few small projects, if you are not having fun, then just choose
another language.

If you love to program, then learning new languages helps you program in other
languages that you already know. As long as you enjoy yourself it is time well
spent.

~~~
prtamil
thanks, it really helped me to overcome hardness... instead of beating myself

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pavelludiq
Lisp doesn't take any more time to get productive in it, than any other modern
language. It takes a bit longer to really get it though. There are a lot of
things in Common Lisp that take some time to sink in, because you rarely see
them in other languages, like macros, generic functions, conditions, etc. But
you don't need to know these things to start using lisp right away.

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ajray
This is a hard (if not impossible) question to answer. It will vary hugely
based on a lot of different factors:

How many languages do you already know?

How long have you been programming?

Have you done any functional programming before?

Are you familiar with lambda calculus?

and the list goes on.

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antfarm
try these: <http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/> <http://landoflisp.com/>

