PicoLisp Documentation

Introduction

There's a surprising wealth of PicoLisp code and knowledge scattered about the internet.

This page is an attempt to organize all of that into a coherent document that will guide you from total beginner to total PicoLisp wizard.

Find tutorials and examples that interest you, type along, and make up your own variations whenever possible. Change the code, break it, see how PicoLisp responds.

Once you begin to build and discover new things, we'd love you to share your stuff with the community.

Here's more info about the wiki, including how to contribute. Happy hacking!

Start here

• A PicoLisp Tutorial
Explore the language on this guided tour. Refreshments to follow!


• A blog about the whole ecosystem of PicoLisp
Tutorials, real-world projects, functional programming theory!


• The PicoLisp Reference
The concepts, data types and kernel functions of the system.


• The Manual Page
If that's your thing.


• The pros and cons of PicoLisp
A honest overview of all features and weaknesses of PicoLisp.


• The Common Index
The essential PicoLisp documentation in one gloriously hyperlinked document.


• Beautiful and Lucid Mind-maps
If color and brevity appeal to you.


• Pilcon Mind-maps
PicoLisp Online Conference notes in mind maps.

Examples

• A collection of PicoLisp examples

Tutorials

• Web Development
Building browser-based applications with PicoLisp...


• The httpGate proxy server
How to set up and use httpGate.


• Databases and Distributed Systems
spread across many machines...


• Embedded Programming
even really really small ones.


• PilBox - Building Android Apps in PicoLisp
Build your Apps in PicoLisp without an Android SDK


• Server-Sent Events
Sending HTML page updates from server to client


• PicoLisp Server Setup (Ubuntu 20.04)
Dispatching PicoLisp applications from Digital Ocean droplet


• Full duplex process automation
Example used is sqlite3, but should apply to a variety to other binaries


• A quick intro to PilDB for those familiar with relational databases
A work in progress, but hopefully useful.

Important aspects of the PicoLisp system

• Interfacing with Other Software
Writing libraries, FFI's, and communicating with the outside world.


• Metaprogramming
And other Lisp wizardry.


• The Function FAQ
Frequently asked questions and detailed explanations of certain functions.


• Background Processing
Asynchronous events and family IPC.

Articles & Essays

• Even small details make a difference!
The 'quote' function and how it handles its arguments.


• Read- vs Run-time
The distinction between the two and a closer look at how they interact


• Evaluating vs Non-evaluating Functions
An important concept in the PicoLisp system


• Analysis of Rosetta Code
A review of commonly used functions in the Rosetta Code listing


• The Dual Nature of NIL
A closer look at NIL's internal representation.


• The many uses of '@' in PicoLisp
Summary of the possible meanings of the at-mark '@' in PicoLisp


• Recursion in PicoLisp
A detailed explanation of Recursion in PicoLisp


• First Class Environments
Separating execution context and variable bindings.


• Array Abstinence
Why there are no arrays in PicoLisp


• Pretty-Print and Source Code Indentation
Some history and praxis


• Syntax in 'src64/'
A look at PicoLisp ASM and how the 64-bit Interpreter binary is built


• How to access a Lisp only function from Pilog
A short example of how to access a Lisp function not present in Pilog


• PicoLisp for Python and Chicken Scheme Programmers
The 'learn one for all' language


• Simplicity and minimalism in software development
A presentation on the benefits of using Picolisp in software development


• Meta programming languages debunked
An exploratory essay of various forms of meta programming and PicoLisp


• The Picolisp database, ORMS and relational database systems.
A comparison between the built-in Picolisp database, ORMs and relational database systems.

Efficient Editing

• Bash Completion
Exactly what it sounds like.


• OUTDATED - Using Vim within PicoLisp
Please see Vip article for updated workflow.


• Emacs-style Line Editing
A new Emacs-like command-line editor for PicoLisp


• Vip - Vi-Style Editor in PicoLisp
A complete editor in less than 1000 lines of code


• Termux-Penti-PicoLisp
Developing on Android devices with PicoLisp


• PilBox - Building Android Apps in PicoLisp
Build your Apps in PicoLisp without an Android SDK

PicoLisp Versions

PicoLisp 64-bit version:

• README
• Generic VM / Assembler
• Internal structures

ErsatzLisp (PicoLisp in Java)

• README
• The ErsatzLisp Java Reflection API
• A Swing REPL written in Ersatz

Free online books on PicoLisp

• PicoLisp Works: (Github), (PDF download)
• PicoLisp by Example: (Github), (PDF download)

PicoLisp source code to run a Wiki yourself

You can try to use the Wiki yourself.

Unpack the Wiki tarball in some convenient place (or the PicoLisp installation directory if you have a local installation), and follow the instructions in the "wiki/README" file.

• wiki.tgz (requires PicoLisp 3.1.6)
The Wiki source files


• https://picolisp.com/wiki/?help
Wiki mark-up


• The VikiD Truth
Example of the Wiki in use somewhere on the web

Other resources

• PicoLisp on ProDevTips.com
• PicoLisp BLOG
• Posts tagged picolisp adamo.wordpress.com
• PicoLisp Explored

Repositories

• Web.l resembles Clojure's Ring. Simple URL dispatch.
• Macropis is a CMS/web development framework.
• Pl-web is an HTTP server that uses cookies for session propagation (used by Macropis).
• Ext library is used by Pl-web and Macropis, common X-liners as one-liners, plus more.
• Indexer parses your file system and compressed archives and lets you full text search file and directory names.
• Logand.com.
• Picoblogorg - a picolisp blog based off org files.
• Picostache an implementation of the mustache template system in PicoLisp.
• PicoLisp Libraries - several PicoLisp libraries: unit, bcrypt, https, json, nanomsg.
• tankf33der - a whole lot of awesome PicoLisp, among other things.

https://picolisp.com/wiki/?documentation

09jan24

abu