r/learnlisp

442 archived posts · Feb 2014 – Sep 2026

Learn Lisp

r/learnlisp

Ask questions and get help for all your Lisp-related queries. Newbies are welcome!

Created Feb 22, 2014

2.3KMembers (last snapshot)

442Archived posts

Note: this is a new subreddit, please message u/cheryllium if you're interested in being a mod.

#Welcome to r/learnlisp!

This is a subreddit where you can ask questions about Lisp and get explanations and help. Please post either questions or links to tutorials. Thanks!

##FAQ

Which Lisp should I learn? The answer is it doesn't matter, unless you are doing something highly specific. If all you're looking for is to learn Lisp, then just pick one and get started.
Do I have to learn Emacs? No, though it's a great Lisp IDE. You can edit Lisp in any text editor, such as Sublime Text or Notepad++.

##POSTING GUIDELINES

Please tag your post with which implementation of Lisp you are using, for instance, [SBCL] or [Scheme].
Describe your problem in the title. Try to be specific, not vague. A bad title might be "Help me!!!" or "I don't know what is wrong here". An example of a good title is "Loop macro does not collect the correct numbers", which gives more information about the problem.
Don't post your full source code unless you have to! Only post the functions/expressions that are relevant to the problem.
To post code in your post/comment, hit enter and then indent each line of your code by four spaces.
We want to see that you've done something to try to solve your problem. So please include in your question a brief description of the things you've tried: for instance, what you've done to attempt to debug so far, or what search terms you googled.
If you need to post long code segments, consider pasting the code into pastebin or gist and providing a link.
Link posts are currently allowed, but you should not submit a link post unless it is for a Lisp tutorial.

##ANSWERING GUIDELINES

Be patient. Lisp can be difficult for newbies, so be nice, not harsh.
Do not write someone's code for them. What will anyone learn from that? Instead, try to ask helpful questions or suggest debugging methods that may lead the OP to discover the answer themselves.

##LEARNING RESOURCES

Practical Common Lisp - if you're new to Lisp, this is one of the best places to start diving in.
On Lisp - Another great guide, especially for learning to write macros.

##EMACS GUIDES

Absolute Beginner's Guide to Emacs - exactly what it sounds like.
Emacs Cheatsheet - it's even printable!
Usually, google is the way to go if you want to know a specific emacs command.
C-x C-e to eval a line of Lisp code.

Other communities

Reddit Rebuilt is an independent, non-commercial archive and is not affiliated with Reddit, Inc. Content belongs to its original authors.