How to write lisps and scripts?

How did all of you learn to write lisps and scripts. Is there a good book or online class or tutorial?

I know with scripts you're supposed to just type what you would type at the command line, but sometimes that doesn't work. I want to learn how to do this but I don't know where to start!

Thanks in advance

 

scripts were basically autocad help & trial and error

web resources:

scripts:
http://www.upfrontezine.com/tailor/tailor19.htm

simple lisp:
http://www.upfrontezine.com/tailor/tailor08.htm
http://www.afralisp.com/lispa/lisp.htm

the command line, but sometimes that doesn't work. I want to learn how to do
this but I don't know where to start!

 

Mary,
I started writing Lisp routines using the Autocad Release 13 Customization Guide. It covers macros, diesel, scripts, menus, dcl, as well as all Lisp commands. I have also found the vlide help file a great source of information for the beginner. A good website for the beginning Lisper is www.afralisp.com, they have some great tutorials.
Good luck!

 

Thanks. I'll give these a try.

 

There used to be a book called "Inside Autolisp" which liked a lot.

the command line, but sometimes that doesn't work. I want to learn how to do
this but I don't know where to start!

 

From the supplied documentation, and trial and error.

Nowadays I'd recommend the afralisp.com website for samples and tutorials,
but it didn't exist back then.

 

Back when???

 

Release 9. Maybe afralisp did exist then, but it was long before I or anyone
else I knew had an internet connection. When I got online, the single best
source was the old Compuserve forum which this newsgroup eventually grew
from.

 

Maybe I missed something?
Who mentioned anything about afralisp being around at anytime other than right now?
Who mentioned anything about release 9?

 

AutoLisp Programming by Rawls & Hagen

Then I met these guys at the NG and now I don't need anything else.


Bill

 

Maybe I missed something?

Well, I mentioned those things in reply to a question from you. Let's
review:

I said in response to the original post:
"From the supplied documentation, and trial and error.
Nowadays I'd recommend the afralisp.com website for samples and tutorials,
but it didn't exist back then."

And you asked me:
"Back when???"

I took your reply at face value, as being a direct question on the time
frame in which I learned lisp, and afralisp didn't exist, as far as I know.
So I replied:
"Release 9. Maybe afralisp did exist then, but it was long before I or
anyone else I knew had an internet connection. When I got online, the single
best source was the old Compuserve forum which this newsgroup eventually
grew from."

I apologize for any misunderstanding. Perhaps you can rephrase your question
if there was something different that you intended to ask me.

 

Tom,
In my original reply:
Re: How to write lisps and scripts?
Mary,
I started writing Lisp routines using the Autocad Release 13 Customization Guide. It covers macros, diesel, scripts, menus, dcl, as well as all Lisp commands. I have also found the vlide help file a great source of information for the beginner. A good website for the beginning Lisper is www.afralisp.com, they have some great tutorials.
Good luck!

I mentioned that I started lisp using the Acad 13 Custimization Guide. I didn't start writing lisp until after the release of Acad14.

Sorry about the timeframe confusion.

Also, I was just mentioning afralisp was a good source, not that it existed back in the day.

Hope this helps!

 

We seem to agree, we've all learned as best we could using the tools available at the time. The supplied documentation is indispensible, and afralisp is one of the friendliest sources available today.

"Trial and error" is basically how we all learn, I think -- just get in there and fool around with it. Having working examples as a starting point is a big help.

It was a little harder in olden times, when the manual was hardcopy, your editor was a DOS app, and you were running a screaming 25 MHz 386 with 4MB of RAM. But we figured it out anyway! Those who care to learn will always find a way.

Best regards,
Tom

 

<< running a screaming 25 MHz 386 with 4MB of RAM.>>

You lucky dog, you. Try 0.4 MHz on an 8088 processor with 512K ram, and the only editor available was EDLIN.

 

You lucky dog, you. Try 0.4 MHz on an 8088 processor with 512K ram, and
the only editor available was EDLIN.

LOL This was after we upgraded from the 286 machines running version 2.6
with 1MB of RAM, of which DOS could only address 640K. I also fought with
EDLIN & at that time it was just too cumbersome to try to learn lisp with
it. On the 386 machines I ran the old MS text editor named ME which came
with their compilers. It was a wonderfully simple, highly configurable text
editor which I never gave up till Windows and Notepad came along.

 

In 1987 I ran AutoCAD 2.6 on a 286-12 under Windows. I could flip out and
edit in notepad, then flip back to AutoCAD and try it out. I'm not sure,
but it may have been Windows 1. :O)

Have fun,
Dave

 

That would have been Windows 1.0, and I can only imagine how slow and
unstable that must have been! AutoCAD alone was bad enough back then. The
tiny little ME editor I used would pop up instantly, and I ran it in a DOS
shell from Acad. Had an F key assigned to running the editor, and it would
default to the the last file opened automatically. Edit, save, close, run
the lisp, then pop it up again. It was effectively the same as flipping over
to notepad.