LISP 1.5 Programmer's Manual

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Summary: The Original Reference for the LISP Programming Language
Review: The LISP programming language was invented by John McCarthy in the late 1950s when he was co-director of the MIT artificial intelligence group. Unlike all other programming languages, LISP is also a simple elegant mathematical formalism which could be called a generalized arithmetic. LISP is also unique in that the language and the data are a single unified formalism. To see how far LISP has gone since then, one should read Common LISP: the Language, by Guy Steele. (There are also several excellent tutorial type books.)

I was an undergraduate student at that time, and as member of the group wrote the LISP 1.5 Programmer's Manual which was later published as a book by the MIT Press. Today, it is of interest as a historical document only. (The book lists the members of the group at that time, and states that the manual was written by M. Levin)

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Summary: A wonderful read.
Review: This book is not just of historical interest. Much has changed since 1962 but not that much. This book is THE reference for implementing dynamically scoped Lisps.