Re: What version of Lisp is running in EMACS?

[Harald Hanche-Olsen]

+ Daniel Klein <danielk@featherbrain.net>:

> I am a completely new EMACS user so please be gentle.
>
> I need to get up to speed using Lisp (yes, I know this is not a Lisp
> group).
>
> I'm initially going to use EMACS for Lisp development and I need to
> know what Lisp version is running in EMACS.

It's called Emacs lisp, or elisp among friends.  (Nobody capitalizes
emacs the way you did.  I notice you didn't write LISP.  Good!)

I am not so sure that elisp is the best to learn from, if your
longtime goal is to learn Common Lisp, say.  There's a risk that you
just end up learning elisp's idiosyncrasies instead.  Maybe you really
should get a Common Lisp system.  Perhaps SBCL.  There are also
commercial lisps out there with free trial versions that are quite
good.  If you for something like SBCL, you can run that under Slime
inside emacs.

Here is a good book if you wish to learn Common Lisp:

  http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/

On that page you will find a reference to Lispbox (gee, Lisp in a
box), which just may be what you need to get stared.

For more information on your options, search the comp.lang.lisp
newsgroup.  Questions about good systems for beginners come up
regularly there.  (But it's a high volume newsgroup, so you may need
to work a bit with your search terms to find the info.)

-- 
* Harald Hanche-Olsen     <URL:http://www.math.ntnu.no/~hanche/>
- It is undesirable to believe a proposition
  when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.
  -- Bertrand Russell