Programming Books

3 Excellent Free Books to Learn Dylan

Last Updated on July 14, 2023

Dylan is a multi-paradigm programming language that includes support for functional and object-oriented programming (OOP). This language is dynamic and reflective while providing a programming model designed to support generating efficient machine code, including fine-grained control over dynamic and static behaviors.

Dylan uses an algebraic infix syntax similar to Pascal or C, but supports an object model not unlike the Common Lisp Object System (CLOS).

It was created in the early 1990s by a group led by Apple Computer.

Here’s our recommended books to learn this language.


1. Dylan Programming by by Neal Feinberg, Sonya E. Keene, Robert O. Mathews, P. Tucker Withington

Dylan ProgrammingThe primary goals of this book are to teach you how to program in Dylan, and how to write programs in an object-oriented style.

Along the way, the authors hope to convince you to use Dylan. It is intended to be a practical, elegant, and fun language to use.

This book is written for application programmers who have experience working in a conventional language, such as C, Pascal, COBOL, FORTRAN, or BASIC, or in an object-oriented language, such as C++, Java, Smalltalk, or Common LISP with CLOS. Familiarity with object-oriented programming and dynamic languages is not required. The authors do compare Dylan to C, C++, and Java in this book, but you can read and understand the book without any knowledge of these languages.

This book is a tutorial on programming in Dylan, and it offers the following:

  • Begins with the most basic use of Dylan, and gradually expands to show the more powerful and advanced techniques.
  • Gives the flavor of working with the Dylan language in a typical Dylan environment.
  • Shows you how to define classes and methods that work together to solve a problem.
  • Shows you how to use many of Dylan’s classes, functions, and features to good effect within the context of an example application.
  • Introduces the more advanced features of Dylan, including multiple inheritance, performance, exceptions, and macros

Read the book


2. The Dylan Reference Manual by Andrew Shalit

The Dylan Reference ManualThe Dylan Reference Manual is the complete specification and reference of the Dylan programming language.

The book is divided into three parts: chapters 1 through 10 describe the overall structure and semantics of the language; chapters 11 through 14 provide a reference describing every class, function, and syntactic construct in the language; appendices contain the BNF for Dylan’s syntax, a listing of names used by the Dylan language, and a glossary of terms.

The book will be of interest to users of Dylan, as well as to those who have a general interest in object-oriented programming and modern programming languages. It is not, however, a tutorial.

Read the book


3. Building Applications With DUIM by Dylan Hackers

Building Applications with DUIMBuilding Applications using DUIM, provides an introduction to developing your own windowed applications using Open Dylan and, in particular, the interface-building functionality provided by the DUIM library suite.

It is designed to complement Getting Started with Open Dylan, which provides information on using the Open Dylan development environment, and the DUIM Reference Manual, which provides a complete reference to the DUIM library suite. You are advised to look at Getting Started with Open Dylan before reading this manual in any depth.

Read the manual


All books in this series:

Free Programming Books
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BashShell and command language; popular both as a shell and a scripting language
BASICBeginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
CGeneral-purpose, procedural, portable, high-level language
C++General-purpose, portable, free-form, multi-paradigm language
C#Combines the power and flexibility of C++ with the simplicity of Visual Basic
ClojureDialect of the Lisp programming language
ClojureScriptCompiler for Clojure that targets JavaScript
COBOLCommon Business-Oriented Language
CoffeeScriptTranscompiles into JavaScript inspired by Ruby, Python and Haskell
CoqDependently typed language similar to Agda, Idris, F* and others
CrystalGeneral-purpose, concurrent, multi-paradigm, object-oriented language
CSSCSS (Cascading Style Sheets) specifies a web page’s appearance
DGeneral-purpose systems programming language with a C-like syntax
DartClient-optimized language for fast apps on multiple platforms
DylanMulti-paradigm language supporting functional and object-oriented coding
ECMAScriptBest known as the language embedded in web browsers
EiffelObject-oriented language designed by Bertrand Meyer
ElixirRelatively new functional language running on the Erlang virtual machine
ErlangGeneral-purpose, concurrent, declarative, functional language
F#Uses functional, imperative, and object-oriented programming methods
FactorDynamic stack-based programming language
ForthImperative stack-based programming language
FortranThe first high-level language, using the first compiler
GoCompiled, statically typed programming language
GroovyPowerful, optionally typed and dynamic language
HaskellStandardized, general-purpose, polymorphically, statically typed language
HTMLHyperText Markup Language
IconWide variety of features for processing and presenting symbolic data
JArray programming language based primarily on APL
JavaGeneral-purpose, concurrent, class-based, object-oriented, high-level language
JavaScriptInterpreted, prototype-based, scripting language
JuliaHigh-level, high-performance language for technical computing
KotlinMore modern version of Java
LabVIEWDesigned to enable domain experts to build power systems quickly
LaTeXProfessional document preparation system and document markup language
LispUnique features - excellent to study programming constructs
LogoDialect of Lisp that features interactivity, modularity, extensibility
LuaDesigned as an embeddable scripting language
MarkdownPlain text formatting syntax designed to be easy-to-read and easy-to-write
Objective-CObject-oriented language that adds Smalltalk-style messaging to C
OCamlThe main implementation of the Caml language
PascalImperative and procedural language designed in the late 1960s
PerlHigh-level, general-purpose, interpreted, scripting, dynamic language
PHPPHP has been at the helm of the web for many years
PostScriptInterpreted, stack-based and Turing complete language
PrologA general purpose, declarative, logic programming language
PureScriptSmall strongly, statically typed language compiling to JavaScript
PythonGeneral-purpose, structured, powerful language
QMLHierarchical declarative language for user interface layout - JSON-like syntax
RDe facto standard among statisticians and data analysts
RacketGeneral-purpose, object-oriented, multi-paradigm, functional language
RakuMember of the Perl family of programming languages
RubyGeneral purpose, scripting, structured, flexible, fully object-oriented language
RustIdeal for systems, embedded, and other performance critical code
ScalaModern, object-functional, multi-paradigm, Java-based language
SchemeA general-purpose, functional language descended from Lisp and Algol
ScratchVisual programming language designed for 8-16 year-old children
SQLAccess and manipulate data held in a relational database management system
Standard MLGeneral-purpose functional language characterized as "Lisp with types"
SwiftPowerful and intuitive general-purpose programming language
TclDynamic language based on concepts of Lisp, C, and Unix shells
TeXMarkup and programming language - create professional quality typeset text
TypeScriptStrict syntactical superset of JavaScript adding optional static typing
ValaObject-oriented language, syntactically similar to C#
VHDLHardware description language used in electronic design automation
VimLPowerful scripting language of the Vim editor
XMLRules for defining semantic tags describing structure ad meaning
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Dev_Ops
Dev_Ops
2 years ago

I like Dylan because it’s both object-oriented, like C++ and Java, and dynamic, like Smalltalk.