Using the cusp Eclipse plug-in to develop a Lisp application

Cusp,lisp's Eclipse development environment

CUSP is the development environment for the Common Lisp programming language. Using Lisp, you can develop all types of applications, including WEB applications. Lisp is the second oldest programming language that is still in use (after Fortran) and is called the first functional language. The creation of Lisp began in the late the 1950s and was first implemented in 1958 by the MIT Artificial intelligence (AI) project. Its strength lies in the processing of lists: AI and symbolic mathematics. In fact, Lisp is a shorthand for "list processor," which is created for the needs of a list processor, and you'll see a description in a later paragraph (see Resources for historical information about Lisp).

You'll find that Lisp is fundamentally different from other common programming languages. For example, in most common programming languages, the multiplication is performed just as you would on paper: int times = 5 * 5;.

Using Lisp, you get 75 from the code (* 5 5 3). To get the maximum value in this list, use (MAX 9 8 7 6 20) to return 20.

Note that the "first function language" here is appropriate, because everything is based on functions. Each function can have a number of indefinite parameters. Using Lisp functions such as car and CDR to handle these lists is a powerful place to use Lisp to process lists.

Because Lisp has a long history, you can find many development environments that are appropriate for Lisp, but there are also inherent problems with legacy programming languages, which are mostly text-based and less intuitive to novices. Therefore, one reason to try to use CUSP is that it provides an intuitive GUI for beginners to understand and develop Lisp, instead of using text-based "try to remember all these commands" type of interface. It also has an advantage over the superb project management capabilities inherent in the Eclipse GUI framework.

Before continuing, you will need to download the latest Eclipse standard package from eclipse.org. Then learn how to install and set up Cusp.

Install Cusp

There should now be a compressed Eclipse standard pack archive. Please unzip it and run Eclipse.exe.

To get the latest version of CUSP, click Help > Software Updates > Find and Install. Click the Search for new features to install option. Now click the New Remote Site button. Type the name CUSP update site and URL http://www.sergeykolos.com/cusp/update, and then click OK (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Enter remote site information for CUSP

Click the check box next to the new remote site that you added and click Finish (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Select Cusp Eclipse Update Site

The system will display another window in which you need to expand the Cusp Eclipse Update Site and select Cusp, as follows:

Figure 3. Select the features you want to install