So this will be short and sweet. Im reading this MIT book online to kind of start me in programming. I’m going to learn HTML and LUA in the future (2 of the lan. I can see relevant to my life at the moment). And chances are that will change as I see what I can do. These guys are starting me off on this REALLLLLLY old language called LISP and it seems cool so far but… Any other reads that may help or that may be better in helping me understand and get into this world that’s new to me? I figured i’d ask here because I know we have some very smart people here that are familliar with coding =D I appreciate any input. Thanks ahead of time! [center]
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Lisp is almost completely different from any procedural/OO languages. If lisp is first language you learn, believe me, you are more at loss with lua than without any programming knowledge at all. 
Also HTML is not an programming language. It’s markup language.
lisp is actually pretty modern and you can do a ton with it. plus, it’s tons of fun!
lisp r00lz!1 (((;
but if you know what language you want to program in then just go for that one directly imo.
lisp is most often introduced in computer engineering degrees because it’s used in some ai programming. also, it’s good for learning recursive algorithms and such but that’s probably overkill for what you want to do programming wise.
I’m doing LISP programming for my uni AI class… coming out of e.g. Java, it takes quite some getting used to. Esoteric acronyms and jargon abound. The syntax is as consistent as it gets, though.
It has absolutely terrible documentation for beginners in the language (i.e. it’s at least pure 50% LISP-jargon). Thank goodness for the tutoring or our class would be pretty close to absolutely farked.
Have you found a decent LISP IDE for Windows? There’s frickin’ nothing, I swear… 
Learning HTML won’t hurt. But, learning CSS that works in both IE and Firefox will hurt 
Probably, your best bet to learn LUA is to simply hit LUA head-on: copy a script, edit it, see if it still works and if so, what changed. Repeat. And have the Renoise API documentation on hand to let you know what you can do. If you just want to program in something, and quickly, I would say that Visual Basic .NET or C# gives the most instant gratification for the least set-up time. Or maybe even Java if you’re using Eclipse for your [i]integrated development environment /i and Swing for your [i]graphical user interface /i.
Python is probably one of the most “rapid gratification” language at the moment. Java still requires lots of boilerplate to work.
But all those languages: Java, C#, VB, C, C++, Javascript, Python, Perl, PHP, Lua, Ruby (and many others) follow the same programming paradigm, if you know one of them, others come very easy. While LISP follows completely different one. I have seen it before, several times. Learning functional languages first will actually make it harder learning procedural languages.
Just began programming/reading up about a year ago myself to learn some Lua.
I started by reading this book for C. The same as yourself I was looking for an overview:
http://www.amazon.co…87400617&sr=1-1
A chatty and helpful read.
FREE STUFF:
edit: If you are inerested in C/C++ there is a free IDE/compiler here aswell:
http://www.codeblocks.org/
There are a few useful tutorials here: (I looked through the C ones though there are python java etc also)
http://www.youtube.c…henewboston#g/u
Also for Lua have a look at the links in my sig aswell which are aimed at beginners.
Can`t advise on the best route as still a newbie myself but this is basically the path I used.
Good luck and plenty of patience…
WOW! Quite a response already. This is why I love this community <3 Thanks guys… =D. The reason why i’m learning LISP is the MIT online resource book i’m reading more over in their quote:
If Lisp is not a mainstream language, why are we using it as the framework for our discussion of programming? Because the language possesses unique features that make it an excellent medium for studying important programming constructs and data structures and for relating them to the linguistic features that support them.
This is what THEY say and i’m just reading the book. =S . Is this not a good point to start from then? And i’m having a bit of trouble finding a compiler for this LISP aswell… maby i’m just too n00b atm to know what i’m actully looking for but… anyway thanks guys!!
@Ledger: Thanks man i’ll definitly check this shit out…
@everyone… I guess i’ll state what and where I really want to go with programming atm… I have a vision of making my own tools in Lua and for the community as I have a couple of ideas so far and also to make VST’s and quick little things that may help production wise =D I take my insperation from things like DBlue’s GLITCH, which is what actully got me thinking of doing something different. So this is where I would like to take it so i’m guessing c++ would be where i want to start?
i’ve only run lisp with an interpreter.
videos for python on mit open course ware
NICE! You guys are awesome… Thanks!
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He can learn LISP and then use it to customize Emacs so he can write in another language.
Python is probably a good place to start. You can learn a lot of basics and it’s fast and easy to set up and start running things.
No, it’s because some academics think lisp is cool and sexy, and they want to share this with others so they would too see The Beauty of Linked Lists. Those “important programming constructs” are mostly trees, which are rather unimportant in high level programming, and lists which make more sense in average procedural languages anyway. 
It might be cool and fun to theoretical programs and math and strange data processing in lis. But in normal life tasks such as displaying a form and reacting to keypress, lisp is probably the worst language to start from.
Oh, and my opinion is learn PHP, Perl and Bash shell scripting. While everyone else is arguing about the beauty of their language, you’ll be getting shit done. /flame on
Also, dBlue’s glitch is (currently) written in Delphi.
Honestly, it depends how your brain works.
For example, there’s theory behind skateboarding, and then there’s skateboarding… Some people learn in clean pristine parks, others in the dirty streets.
My real opinion is just jump into Lua, and go from there, because it will take a decade before you get anywhere anyway…
+1
same discussion as to which daw is best etc… it’s all about picking the right tool for the right task.
http://www.youtube.c…h?v=XHosLhPEN3k
btw, happy belated 70th birthday, john! :>>
LMFAO!!!
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I knew lisp only through AutoCAD… we speak of the ancient time where AutoCAD 4.0 was the big deal here (And Novell Networks 5)