The first big project by the Chicago Lisp User Group is a half-day workshop to introduce Lisp and its goodness to other programmers. The primary audience is the Chicago Linux User Group but it open to everyone. This is the initial announcement and tentative schedule. The most updated info will be on my Chicago Lisp page.

INTRO TO LISP WORKSHOP

WHO: Programmers interested in learning more about Lisp.

HOW MUCH: The low, low price of 3ish hours of attention span.

WHEN: Saturday, May 31st from 3pm-6pm.

WHERE: Institute of Design, 350 N. LaSalle St, 4th floor, Chicago. Map.

WHAT: A hands-on introduction the the Common Lisp programming language.

Tentative Schedule (presentations will be 30-60 min)

• Setting up a Lisp Environment (John Quigley): A hands-on walkthrough of how to setup a Lisp environment, Emacs, and SLIME. There will be documentation beforehand about steps to take and which packages to get.
• Lisp Basics and Idioms (Peter Christensen): Lisp syntax, contructs, basic code, idioms and practices.
• Common Lisp condition system (need a volunteer)
• Macros (Craig Luddington): How Lisp lets you write code that writes code that writes code … and why you\’d want to do that.
• Demos of cool things in Lisp (need volunteers): showing off both neat and practical things that Lisp can do.

We\’re looking for volunteers to do the following:

• Present on the CL condition system
• Suggest and present on other aspects of CL not listed here that would be suitable for an introductory session
• Walk around and help troubleshoot during the first session about setting up your environment.

If you\’re interested in attending or helping, please email me and include “Intro to Lisp Workshop” at the start of the message.