Object-Oriented Programming in Common LISP: A Programmer's Guide to Clos

Sonya Keene is one of the very best technical writers in the entire computer industry, and she was one of the inner circle of experts who designed and standardized the Common Lisp Object System. This book is crystal clear, accurate, and comprehensive.

This is a great book. It shows everything about CLOS (except the metaobject protocol, which is just mentioned but not explained in detail). The explanations are very clear and the author does every possible thing to make you understand all details (a bit too much for me, but that's a matter of taste). For anyone interested in OO programming in Common Lisp, this is an essential book. Even if you are interested in OO programming in general, this book covers a different approach, so it is nice for a comparison (in CLOS, methods do not belong to classes, and there are lots of interesting tricks that you can do that are not possible in other languages).

This is a nice "tutorial style" walk through much of the functionality of CLOS.It doesn't get into examples that are of _spectacular_ complexity, either in size or in difficulty of concept, but that strikes me as being just fine. The dialect of CLOS in use predates the final version that was released, so a few examples require a little modification to work with modern Lisp releases.If you're looking to get into the sophistication of redefining your own metaobject protocols, the MOP book is surely more suitable. But for most of us who just need to figure out what CLOS is good for, this book provides a very nice presentation of that.

You are going to get precisely what is advertised: a good guide to object-oriented programming in Common Lisp, no less, no more.

Keene covers CLOS thoroughly and clearly. A classic. Can't say much else. If you care about your LISP programming craft, buy this book.