Common Lisp the Language, 2nd Edition (original) (raw)
CMU Artificial Intelligence Repository
Common Lisp the Language, 2nd Edition
This document contains the complete text of the book
Common Lisp the Language, 2nd edition by Guy L. Steele, Thinking Machines, Inc. Digital Press 1990 paperbound 1029 pages ISBN 1-55558-041-6 $39.95
in html format. To use it, start with the Title Page or Table of Contents. A searchable index interface to the book is under construction. Several mirrors of this page are available. Please use the mirror that is closest to you.
Digital Press
We are very grateful to Butterworth-Heinemann, owners of Digital Press, for allowing us to make the full text of this important reference work widely available in electronic format. The paperbound version is of course readily available at fine bookstores, or contact them directly:
Digital Press 225 Wildwood St. Woburn, MA 01801 Tel: 800-366-2665 (USA) or 617-928-2527 Fax: 800-446-6520 (USA) or 617-933-6333
For other fine books from Digital Press, please see the Digital Press 1994 Catalog.
Book Description
In this greatly expanded edition of the defacto standard, you'll learn about the nearly 200 changes already made since original publication - and find out about gray areas likely to be revised later. Written by the Vice-Chairman of X3J13 (the ANSI committee responsible for the standardization of Common Lisp) and co-developer of the language itself, the new edition contains the entire text of the first edition plus six completely new chapters. They cover:
- CLOS, the Common Lisp Object System, with new features to support function overloading and object-oriented programming, plus complete technical specifications
- Loops, a powerful control structure for multiple variables
- Conditions, a generalization of the error signaling mechanism
- Series and generators
- Plus other subjects not part of the ANSI standards but of interest to professional programmers. Throughout, you'll find fresh examples, additional clarifications, warnings, and tips - all presented with the author's customary vigor and wit.
LaTeX, DVI, PS, and HTML versions
The sources for the book and catalog are available in gzipped tar files:
README file (ascii)
HTML version The original versions of these files can be obtained by anonymous ftp from
and the Digital Press catalog with any distributed electronic copies of Common Lisp the Language.
Known Bugs
The LaTeX sources were converted to html using the latex2html program. We fixed many of the glitches by hand, but may have missed some. When in doubt, check your copy of the original paperbound version.
Because latex2html replaces mathematical formulas, tables, figures, and non-ascii characters with embedded GIFs, you may find that some characters drop out when cutting and pasting the text. Where possible, we've attempted to replace these GIFs with ascii equivalents.
The current index is inferior to the one available in the paperbound version and will eventually be replaced with a form-based GLIMPSE index.
Please report errors in the html version to ai+cltl2@cs.cmu.edu.
Acknowledgments
The following people were instrumental in the preparation of the html version of the book:
- Mark Kantrowitz
- Nikos Drakos
- Robert Doorenbos
- Marius Minea
- Alison Cawsey
- Steve Strassmann
- Tom Bylander
Inquiries, comments, and corrections are welcome. Please direct them to
Digital Press is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation, used under license to Butterworth-Heinemann.