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Lisp Koans is a port of Edgecase's Ruby Koans, with some cross pollination from gregmalcom's Python Koans.

The Lisp Koans are a hands on educational tool designed to ease the programmer into writing Lisp code and learning Lisp features. It is structured as an ordered list of unit tests, which the programmer completes, receiving feedback along the way.

Installing Lisp Koans

First the user must install a version of Common Lisp. SBCL is recommended. Follow the directions at the link, or use your system's package manager.

Running Lisp Koans

From a terminal, execute your lisp interpreter on the file 'contemplate.lsp' e.g.

sbcl --script contemplate.lsp

Running on a fresh version should output the following:

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Thinking about ASSERTS
    ASSERT-TRUE has damaged your karma.

You have not yet reached enlightenment ...
  A koan is incomplete.

Please meditate on the following code:
   File "koans/asserts.lsp"
   Koan "ASSERT-TRUE"
   Current koan assert status is "(INCOMPLETE)"

You are now 0/169 koans and 0/25 lessons away from reaching enlightenment
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

This indicates that the script has completed, and that the learner should look to asserts.lsp to locate and fix the problem. The problem will be within a define-test block such as

(define-test assert-true
    "t is true.  Replace the blank with a t"
    (assert-true ___))

In this case, the test is incomplete, and the student should fill in the blank (____) with appropriate lisp code to make the assert pass.

In order to test code, or evaluate tests interactively, students may copy and paste code into the lisp command line REPL.

Quoting the Ruby Koans instructions

   "In test-driven development the mantra has always been, red, green, 
refactor. Write a failing test and run it (red), make the test pass (green),
then refactor it (that is look at the code and see if you can make it any
better. In this case you will need to run the koan and see it fail (red), make
the test pass (green), then take a moment and reflect upon the test to see what
it is teaching you and improve the code to better communicate its
intent (refactor)."

Content

The Common Lisp koans are based on the Python Koans and Ruby Koans projects. Additionally, many of the tests are based on new material that is special to Common Lisp.

Note that the unit on threads requires Quicklisp.