LISP

I actually wrote this post a few weeks ago, but decided not to post it for some reason.  Today I learned from Without a Net that the creator of the LISP language, John McCarthy passed away.

If you have not looked at LISP much, it’s still very relevant today. LISP (AutoLISP) and AutoCAD customization go hand-in-hand.  Many of us who customize AutoCAD first use LISP.

Even if you are looking at other programming languages, knowing LISP is a valuable skill.  See this list of quotes for some reasons to learn standard LISP.

Here are a few more reasons to learn LISP that are related to AutoCAD:

• It’s simple to customize AutoCAD startup using the Acad.lsp or Acaddoc.lsp file (Part 1 and Part 2).
• You can enter LISP directly into the command line.
  • (FINDFILE "SIMPLEX.SHX")

• There is a nice Visual Lisp IDE (VLIDE) built into AutoCAD.

If you’re interested in learning more about LISP, the AfraLISP website has some great tutorials on using the Visual Lisp IDE.