Hey, I''m just starting to get interested in LISP. I''ve been using Crimson Editor as my IDE for Java, and I''d like to use it for LISP as well. So I need a command line LISP compiler or interpreter...however that works. I''ve played with an interpreter with individual lines of code, but I can see that it''s not a very good way to develop...I need persistent storage. I''ve googled for a couple different LISP implementations, but I couldn''t figure out how to do what I want...in fact, as far as programming lisp goes, I don''t know what it is that I want to do! Any tips would be appreciated. Basically- how can I get started with LISP and an external IDE? Brian J

I suggest that you use Corman Lisp as your interactive compiler, because it is a commercial product that is free for non-commercial use. Do not mistake the fact that it acts interactively to mean that it is an interpreter - it compiles everything you input before executing it. You can get it from CormanLisp.com.

As far as IDE, a large benefit of Common Lisp is that it is interactive. Using something like Crimson Editor, while it is a nice text/source editor, is a bad idea because you lose the interactive aspect. I suggest you either use the IDE that comes with Corman Lisp(which says it expires in 30 days but really doesn''t), or Emacs. Emacs is a beast of an editor, with a 2MB manual, but once you get it figured out it is the PERFECT IDE for Lisp. I''ve searched long and hard and have yet to find a better free IDE for Lisp. You can get EMacs from Gnu.Org