RE: Book recommendation

[Drew Adams]

    The elisp info/manual is too much like a standard. Is there a
    K&R type

(ugh! ouf!)

    book you
    can recommend for elisp? One that takes you on a journeay with the
    language while developing small programs?

Try the Emacs Lisp Introduction manual (also in Info). It is essentially a
tutorial, with lots of examples. It leads you by the hand well.

    How much like "Lisp" is "elisp"? The same? is there *a* Lisp? or does it
    vary a lot?

Emacs Lisp (what you called "elisp") is a Lisp. What do you mean by "a lot"?
What's your yardstick?

    What would you recommend for someone to get to grips with advanced Lisp
    programming in emacs?

Start with the Emacs Lisp Introduction manual. There is enough "advanced
programming" stuff in there to keep you busy for a while.

    Is (debugger) the only debugger? Seems kind of antiquated and hard to
    use - even gdb provides more for C debugging in emacs.

There are several debuggers for Emacs. See the Emacs Lisp manual (elisp).

--

IMO, Emacs Lisp is a *very* good Lisp to learn Lisp with. Others might
disagree (but they're of course wrong).