LispInSmallPieces/README.md

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# A Collection of Interpreters from Lisp In Small Pieces, written in Coffeescript
## Purpose
I don't know Lisp, so I figured the correct place to start was to write
my own interpreter. After buying five different textbooks (*The
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs*, aka "The Wizard
Book", Friedman's *The Essentials of Programming Languages*, *Let over
Lambda*, *On Lisp*, and finally *Lisp In Small Pieces*, I decided the
last one gave the clearest step-by-step introduction.
Since I didn't know Lisp, my task was to translate what Quiennec wrote
in his book into a language I *did* know: Javascript. Well,
Coffeescript, which is basically Javascript with a lot of the
syntactical noise removed, which is why I liked it.
## Usage
I don't know if you're going to get much out of it, but the reader
(which I had to write by hand, seeing as I didn't *have* a native Lisp
reader on hand in my Javascripty environment), and each interpreter has
a fairly standard test case that demonstrates that each language does
what it says it does: you can do math, set variables, name and create
functions, and even do recursion.
## Notes
chapter-lambda-1 is not from Lisp In Small Pieces. It is a primitive
CPS interpreter built on top of the interpreter from LiSP Chapter 1,
using techniques derived from a fairly facile reading of
<a href="http://lisperator.net/pltut/">Lisperator's "Implement A
Programming Language in Javascript."</a> But it was fun.
## LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT NOTICE: NO WARRANTY GRANTED OR IMPLIED
See the LICENSE file.