Lisp - Functions passed into another function as arguments and called from within a Let - lisp

Question

I am learning Lisp and, just for practice/education, am trying to define a function that will
ask the user to enter a number until they enter an integer > 0 [copied from Paul Graham's Ansi Common Lisp]
print that number and subtract 1 from it, repeat until the number hits 0, then return.
I am trying to do this via passing 2 functions into a higher-order function - one to get the number from the user, and another recursive [just for fun] function that prints the number while counting it down to 0.
Right now my higher-order function is not working correctly [I've tested the first 2 and they work fine] and I cannot figure out why. I am using SBCL in SLIME. My code for the 3 functions looks like this:
(defun ask-number ()
(format t "Please enter a number. ")
(let ((val (read))) ; so val is a single-item list containing the symbol 'read'?
(cond ; no here read is a function call
((numberp val)
(cond
((< val 0) (ask-number))
(T val)))
(t (ask-number))))))
(defun count-down (n)
(cond
((eql n 0) n)
(t
(progn
(format t "Number is: ~A ~%" n)
(let ((n (- n 1)))
(count-down n))))))
(defun landslide (f1 f2)
(let (x (f1))
(progn
(format t "x is: ~A ~%" x)
(f2 x)))))
but calling slime-eval-defun in landslide yields:
; SLIME 2.27; in: DEFUN LANDSLIDE
; (F1)
;
; caught STYLE-WARNING:
; The variable F1 is defined but never used.
; (SB-INT:NAMED-LAMBDA LANDSLIDE
; (F1 F2)
; (BLOCK LANDSLIDE
; (LET (X (F1))
; (PROGN (FORMAT T "x is: ~A ~%" X) (F2 X)))))
;
; caught STYLE-WARNING:
; The variable F1 is defined but never used.
;
; caught STYLE-WARNING:
; The variable F2 is defined but never used.
; in: DEFUN LANDSLIDE
; (F2 X)
;
; caught STYLE-WARNING:
; undefined function: COMMON-LISP-USER::F2
;
; compilation unit finished
; Undefined function:
; F2
; caught 4 STYLE-WARNING conditions
I have tried several [what I consider] obvious modifications to the code, and they all fail with different warnings. Calling the function like (landslide (ask-number) (count-down)), ask-number prompts for user input as expected, but then SLIME fails with
invalid number of arguments: 0
[Condition of type SB-INT:SIMPLE-PROGRAM-ERROR]
I know I have to be missing something really obvious; can someone tell me what it is?

Answer 1

First: You are missing a set of parens in your let:
You have (let (x (f1)) ...) which binds 2 variables x and f1 to nil.
What you want is (let ((x (f1))) ...) which binds 1 variable x to the values of function call (f1)
Second: Common Lisp is a "lisp-2", so to call f2 you need to use funcall: (funcall f2 ...).
Finally: all your progns are unnecessary, and your code is hard to read because of broken indentation, you can use Emacs to fix it.

Answer 2

Before I reach an error in landslide, there are some notes about this code:
Your first function is hard to read- not just because of indentation, but because of nested cond.
You should always think about how to simplify condition branches- using and, or, and if you have only two branches of code, use if instead.
There are predicates plusp and minusp.
Also, don't forget to flush.
I'd rewrite this as:
(defun ask-number ()
(format t "Please enter a number. ")
(finish-output)
(let ((val (read)))
(if (and (numberp val)
(plusp val))
val
(ask-number))))
Second function, count-down.
(eql n 0) is zerop
cond here has only two branches, if can be better
cond has implicit progn, so don't use progn inside cond
let is unnecessary here, you can use 1- directly when you call count-down
Suggested edit:
(defun count-down (n)
(if (zerop n) n
(progn
(format t "Number is: ~A ~%" n)
(count-down (1- n)))))
Also, this function can be rewritten using loop and downto keyword, something like:
(defun count-down (n)
(loop for i from n downto 0
do (format t "Number is: ~A ~%" i)))
And finally, landslide. You have badly formed let here and as Common Lisp is Lisp-2, you have to use funcall. Note that let has also implicit progn, so you can remove your progn:
(defun landslide (f1 f2)
(let ((x (funcall f1)))
(format t "x is: ~A ~%" x)
(finish-output)
(funcall f2 x)))
Then you call it like this:
(landslide #'ask-number #'count-down)