Common List has become the the internationally standardized specification as it has been designed by many researchers and system developmers; programmes are highly transportable between systems and the specification of the language is independent of the hardware and the operating system.

Introduction to Common Lisp is designed to explain Common Lisp in a way that can be understood by beginneers. It explains programming ideas such as list processing and symbolic processing using Common Lisp. Included is examples of the actual interaction with the system for the reader and can be used while using or not using the system. Variations of the startup and and the handling of errors on different systems is supplied.