AutoLISP, Visual LISP & DCL

[Jozi68]

Can someone please give a beginner a quick rundown? What is the difference between AutoLISP, Visual LISP & DCL? Which is the most popular? Should I learn any of these in stead of .Net? Do I need to buy software (an editor)?

[MSasu]

Just a glance through definitions:

AutoLISP – is one of the languages used to customize AutoCAD.

VisualLISP – an extension of the base language that become available from AutoCAD 2000.

DCL – is a language associated to AutoLISP to design dialog boxes.

(please follow the attached links for details)

 

For those you have a built-in editor in AutoCAD; can use also any text editor.

 

Regarding AutoLISP over .Net approach, please do a search on the Forum, this was discussed in the past.

 

Regards,

Mircea

Edited April 15, 2011 by MSasu
spelling

[rkmcswain]

Good reply by Mircea.

 

Here are a few more links to some good Autolisp/Visual Lisp resources:

 

http://www.afralisp.net/

http://lee-mac.com/tutorials.html

http://sites.google.com/site/visuallispbible/

http://klobouk.fsv.cvut.cz/~chour/Lisp/Contents.htm

Edited April 15, 2011 by rkmcswain
clarify purpose of links

[BlackBox]

Can someone please give a beginner a quick rundown? What is the difference between AutoLISP, Visual LISP & DCL?

 

Msasu took care of this already.

 

Which is the most popular?

 

That entirely depends on the platform you're developing for, and the task(s) you're trying to accomplish.

 

Should I learn any of these in stead of .Net?

 

No, the real development power is learning how to harness the strengths of each language in order to avoid the weaknesses of another.

 

This thread helped me personally when I asked this same question: What API should I learn?

 

Do I need to buy software (an editor)?

 

Msasu is correct that (for LISP), any text editor will do, but you will not have the benefit of the included Developer Documentation, Debugging capabilities, etc. If you have AutoCAD, then you have the best Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Visual LISP (VLIDE), and for VBA (VBAIDE).

 

However, I wouldn't spend (waste?) time learning VBA... if you want to use the ActiveX COM API, then either go with Visual LISP, or .NET - again this *should* be task dependent, as .NET has functionality that VL does not, especially with recent verticals, like Civil 3D.

 

To develop using .NET a separate software package must be installed - Visual Studio (Full, or Express). Just be sure you know which platform you're developing for, and use the appropriate .NET framework version (3.0, 3.5, etc.).

 

Hope this helps!

[BlackBox]

Here are a few more links to some good resources:

 

... Let's not forget one of my favorites; http://cadpanacea.com/ :wink: