Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Little Schemer - 4th Edition by Daniel P. Friedman, Matthias Felleisen ISBN: 0-262-56099-2 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 21 December, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.86 (14 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: a reminder of older, cleverer times
Comment: I am reading this book now, after wanting to get back into LISP programming after a ten year hiatus. My last memory of LISP was when I learned it in high school with an excellent teacher. I wish we had had this book back then! As it stands, I devoured the book in a few sittings -- its amusing, fast paced, rigorous and low-BS structure make it an excellent read.
I'm of the last generation of students who were able to switch on a computer and get a BASIC prompt. The huge heft of "introductory" programming books today leaves me cold and uninspired -- I would hate to have seen these when I was first exploring the excitement of programming.
The Little Schemer, by some of the old gurus of the (I believe) MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab (if not that particular lab, then at least those early, heady days in the '70s when AI wasn't a joke), reminded me of what it used to be like -- slowly building up a repertoire of commands and associated concepts that made programming seem a lot more like playing a Bach fugue and a lot less like debugging window objects. Things like recursion -- the essential part of this book -- are inherently wonderful.
Were I teaching an advanced class for high school students, this book would be at the top of my list. Were I wanting to introduce a liberal arts student into the joys of mathematics, this book would be at the top. Were I wanting to deprogram a bad-habited CS student, this book. Indeed, with so many Universities wanting to stuff some kind of logical, syntatical reasoning requirements into their required courses, this book should be a best seller.
It is a book that recaptures the joys and frustrations of programming and goes a long way to explaining why so many of the brightest people of the 20th century, at some point or another, sat down and cons'ed up a list.
Rating: 5
Summary: Not For Dummies
Comment: In 1974, Daniel P. Friedman published a remarkable little book called The Little LISPer. It was only 68 pages, but it did a remarkable thing: It could teach you to think recursively. It used some pretend dialect of LISP (which was written in all caps in those days). The dialect didn't fully conform to any real LISP. But that was ok because it wasn't really about LISP, it was about recursive functions. You didn't need a computer in order to work through the exercises. After reading the book, I was changed. Or perhaps transformed. Or altered. In a good way. There are very few books that deeply change the way that you think. This is one of those books.
The format is a programmed text with questions on the left side and answers on the right. The way you use it is to read a question, think about the question, come up with an answer, and then compare your answer to Friedman's answer.
He used the names of foods as the symbols that are manipulated by your functions, and little jokes were scattered around to pull you back when things get so deep that your head is going to pop off. It even has a place reserved for JELLY STAINS!
The book has been through several revisions. The latest, The Little Schemer (Fourth Edition), updated by Matthias Felleisen, now conforms more closely to a real programming language, Scheme, and has new chapters which delve much deeper into recursive function theory and language processors.
Felleisen is not as comfortable with the programmed text format, so instead of questions and answers, he has a deranged dialog going on which reads a little like Sméagol and Gollum discussing fishes.
The Little Schemer is not a complete book on programming. It is weak in practical concerns like documentation, defensive programming, and computational efficiency. The development of a system of arithmetic from three primitives is delightful from a mathematical perspective and shockingly horrible from an engineering perspective.
It also will not teach you very much about Scheme. It touches on only a very small part of the language: a very good part.
Despite its flaws, the book has a very loyal following and that is because it works. It teaches one thing, a thing that is very difficult to teach, a thing that every profession programmer should know, and it does it really well. These are lessons that stick with you. You need to grab a sandwich and study this book.
Rating: 4
Summary: Excellent Introduction to Programming using Scheme
Comment: This is one of my favorite programming books, but I had to revisit it a few times to realize it. See, the thing that took me a little while to figure out is this: The Little Schemer is not about Scheme. It's about how to think when you are approaching computer programming issues. It happens to use Scheme as the language of choice, because Scheme is (arguably) the best language available to learn about programming. This book is very well-organized, with each concept building on what has been established before. It is important that you follow through the question-and-answer style of instruction. Try to answer the questions, and think about the answers. The only reason I don't give this book five stars is because I can see it becoming less useful to you as you learn more about programming. Then again, that's the whole point of an introduction, isn't it?
 |
Title: The Seasoned Schemer by Daniel P. Friedman, Matthias Felleisen ISBN: 026256100X Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 21 December, 1995 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
 |
Title: Essentials of Programming Languages - 2nd Edition by Daniel P. Friedman, Mitchell Wand, Christopher T. Haynes ISBN: 0262062178 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 29 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $60.00 |
 |
Title: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - 2nd Edition (MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) by Harold Abelson, Gerald Jay Sussman ISBN: 0262011530 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 25 July, 1996 List Price(USD): $75.00 |
 |
Title: Instructor's Manual t/a Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - 2nd Edition by Julie Sussman ISBN: 0262692201 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 15 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
 |
Title: The Scheme Programming Language : Third Edition by R. Kent Dybvig ISBN: 0262541483 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
