mss+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Mark Sherman) (12/15/89)
Is anyone familar with the book "Scheme and the Art of Programming" by Springer & Friedman (MIT Press)? I'm looking for something for bright high school students. (Please respond to me, I don't normally read this newgroup, thanks.) -Mark
pattis@cs.washington.edu (Richard Pattis) (12/15/89)
In article <QZVyBD600VsAInCkIW@andrew.cmu.edu>, mss+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Mark Sherman) writes: > Is anyone familar with the book "Scheme and the Art of Programming" by > Springer & Friedman (MIT Press)? I'm looking for something for bright > high school students. (Please respond to me, I don't normally read this > newgroup, thanks.) > -Mark When asking such a question, is it appropriate for the inquirer to also say that he/she will post responses to the net? As a faithful comp.lang.scheme reader, who is interested in the topic, and took the time to read the message, I would like to profit from any responses generated by this newsgroup. Rich Pattis
vanMeule@ALLEGHENY.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM (Andre van Meulebrouck) (12/15/89)
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 89 13:15:43 -0500 (EST)
From: Mark Sherman <mss+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Is anyone familar with the book "Scheme and the Art of Programming" by
Springer & Friedman (MIT Press)? I'm looking for something for bright
high school students. (Please respond to me, I don't normally read this
newgroup, thanks.)
-Mark
I just skimmed it, looking over every page briefly, so take my comments with
that in mind.
I bought it because it has a nice section on continuations (which I felt I could
profit from to become more comfortable with them), and for reference purposes
because it does go into some pretty deep and interesting examples that show not
just Scheme, but various programming paradigms and how to use them (in a similar
manner to "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs"'s approach).
The latter is especially nice as Scheme, elegant as it is, is ultimately "just"
a vehicle by which to express algorithms and concepts, so some discussion of
what to "say" once you learn "speak" Scheme is important (as well as the
comments here and there as to why it might perhaps be easier to say them in
Scheme than in other languages).
The book seems to me to be very concise, complete, readable, and text-bookish
(in that I believe it has lots of exercises, almost like a math book) so I
should think it would suit your purposes well.
My *real* intent in replying to this message however was to change the subject
<grin>, as it reminded me about a book I'm curious about.
Specifically, has anyone looked at a copy of the (relatively) recent
"Introduction to Functional Programming" by Bird and Wadler of Oxford and
Glasgow Universities (Prentice Hall, March 1988)?chewy@apple.com (Paul Snively) (12/16/89)
In article <19891215071609.2.VANMEULE@PERTA.SCRC.Symbolics.COM> vanMeule@ALLEGHENY.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM (Andre van Meulebrouck) writes: [Lots o' stuff about Scheme and the Art of Programming removed] First, a message for Andre': Hey! So THAT'S where you disappeared to! :-) Now, back to the subject at hand: Dan Friedman was kind enough to send me a copy of his (co-authored) new book, and I am very pleased with it. I think it would be perfectly fine for bright high-school students, especially if the students are NOT carrying around a lot of preconceived baggage from BASIC/Pascal/C when they get into this. They'll have less to unlearn that way. I'm with Andre'; I particularly appreciated the in-depth discussion of continuations (two chapters that Dan Friedman called "a labor of love," and it shows). Like many texts, the books is a tad short on example applications of the methodologies, but that is really my only criticism, and it's intended to be a mild one (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs has lots of examples of application; I think between these two texts, you've got an EXTREMELY good computer science course with an emphasis on Scheme). __________________________________________________________________________ Just because I work for Apple Computer, Inc. doesn't mean that they believe what I believe or vice-versa. __________________________________________________________________________ C++ -- The language in which only friends can access your private members. __________________________________________________________________________