Re: Symbolic programming for dummies

On May 6, 11:50 pm, Francogrex <fra...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On May 6, 8:08 pm, rjf <fate...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

try Peter Norvig, Paradigms of AI Programming. The language is Lisp.
All the details are there, for a simple math simplifier.

Thanks. I searched a little bit on the net yesterday and it seems it's
what I want. But I have a general question (to anyone who can answer):
I have never used lisp before (I used S+ for statistical programming
and C++ for general programming). Do you have any idea if it's
generally useful to learn lisp (beyond the advantage of symbolic)?

Yes, that's why Scheme, a dialect of lisp, is taught at a number of
high-ranking universities.

Can
you do general programming in it, like C++ (or at least mathematical
programming like Fortran or S+)?
Yes, you can even do matrix calculations. See matlisp.

I also read that it is rather a
"dead" language in the sense that it is not used anymore

There are many ignorant people who voice opinions on many things.
If you search for articles on computer language popularity, you will
find many articles, suggesting that such previously popular languages
like Pascal, Java, Perl, are dropping in some metric, while Lisp may
even be growing. However, for building a computer algebra system,
Lisp is certainly common: e.g. Reduce, Axiom/Scratchpad, Macsyma/
Maxima,
and a host of experimental systems.


and probably
there is less (or no) support and development, so I'm afraid it would
be a waste of time and energy to learn it (would be like learning
latin).

It would not take long, and would probably be refreshing. Maybe like
Latin
except not taking so long...

See the vitality of comp.lang.lisp. See the association of lisp users.


Anyway, I downloaded something called XLISP-PLUS and will try
to figure out what it is.

That is a lisp based on statistical packages. It is not full Common
Lisp
You can download several free ANSI standard
common lisps, which will be more likely to run Norvig's code without
any change.

Good luck.



.

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