"A great hacker .. described it to me as "the best programming book out there" (even if you never touch AI or Lisp again)."
That is a great description of PAIP. It is almost a blow by blow description of how Peter Norvig thinks through problems.
One of the great things about PAIP is that it provides a step beyond the "Introduction to ..." books that most languages have.
Some languages have books that expose how great hackers use that language and are targeted towards people really trying to master the language, eg: Common Lisp has PG's On Lisp and Peter Norvig's PAIP, C has David Hanson's "C Interfaces and Implementations", Forth has Leo Brodie's books and so on.
Many other languages, even very popular ones, don't have these intermediate-to-expert level books written by outstanding hackers and are restricted to "Introduction to X" type books often written by people who aren't necessarily great programmers, something I've found a bit strange.
Interfaces and Implementations is another great book, sitting on a shelf just below PAIP. There's code I've written based on that book that I use to date (in multiple languages).
That is a great description of PAIP. It is almost a blow by blow description of how Peter Norvig thinks through problems.
One of the great things about PAIP is that it provides a step beyond the "Introduction to ..." books that most languages have.
Some languages have books that expose how great hackers use that language and are targeted towards people really trying to master the language, eg: Common Lisp has PG's On Lisp and Peter Norvig's PAIP, C has David Hanson's "C Interfaces and Implementations", Forth has Leo Brodie's books and so on.
Many other languages, even very popular ones, don't have these intermediate-to-expert level books written by outstanding hackers and are restricted to "Introduction to X" type books often written by people who aren't necessarily great programmers, something I've found a bit strange.