land-of-lisp

So, I'm reading Land of Lisp now, and Lisp is turning out to be quite different than other programming languages that I've seen. Anyways, the book provides some code that we're meant to enter into the CLISP REPL: (defparameter *small* 1) (defparameter *big* 100) (defun guess-my-number () (ash (+ *small* *big*) -1)) (defun smaller () (setf *big* (1- (guess-my-number))) (guess-my-number)) (defun bigger () (setf *small* (1+ (guess-my-number))) (guess-my-number)) Now, the basic goal is to create a number guessing game wherein the user/player chooses a number, and then the computer tries to guess

So I just got Land of Lisp and started to do the first program. I have a couple questions. Is there a way to just write some code and run it through a compiler, or interpreter, and not use the REPL thing? I don't like it much. I can't seem to go back if I messed up. It just kinda says "Ha you screwed up, retype that whole function." I would also like to know what the point of REPL is. Non-REPL work flow Edit your file Compile the file using compile-file ; fix errors and warnings; repeat. Load the file using load ; evaluate the form you want; repeat Example $ cat > f.lisp <<EOF (defun f (x) (if