Lisp/Scheme interpreter without Emacs?

Question

I\'ve been wanting to teach myself Lisp for a while. However, all the interpreters of which I\'ve heard involve some flavor of emacs. Are there any command line interpreters, s

Answer 1

No "interpreter" requires emacs.

Also, emacs can run elisp in a headless manner.

Answer 2

You could also try DrScheme, which whilst not exactly a standalone interpreter, isn't emacs :)

It's basically a simple IDE that has an area to type in code that can be executed as a file, and then another area that is the running interpreter that you can interact with.

(Also, find the UC Berkeley CS61A podcasts and listen to them, as well as reading SICP)

Answer 3

I often write lisp shell scripts which start with this line:

#!/usr/bin/clisp

Then you don't even need to type "lispinterpret" on the command-line. Just mark the script executable and run it directly.

Answer 4

The most widely used IDE for Common Lisp, particularly in the free software subset of the community, is in fact SLIME, which runs on Emacs. You can use whatever CL compiler you prefer and invoke Lisp source files the way you describe, but if you do that, you won't be taking advantage of many of Lisps dynamic features that are so incredibly useful while developing your application.

I suggest you take a look at this SLIME demonstration video to see what I mean, even though it might be a bit outdated at this point.

If the problem is that you (think you) don't like Emacs, I seriously suggest you try to learn it. Seriously. No, really, I mean that. However, there are alternatives, such as the IDEs provided by commercial Lisp implementations such as Allegro and Lispworks (free trials available), or an Eclipse plug-in called Cusp.

Answer 5

Did you try Allegro CL from http://www.franz.com/?

Answer 6

It looks like Steel Bank Common Lisp (SBCL) also caters to what you want:

http://www.sbcl.org/manual/#Shebang-Scripts

SBCL is both top rate and open source.