The Little Schemer - 4th Edition
by Daniel P. Friedman, Matthias Felleisen
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Book Summary Information
Author: Daniel P. Friedman, Matthias FelleisenDrawings: Duane Bibby
Foreword: Gerald J. Sussman
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1995-12-21
ISBN: 0262560992
Number of pages: 216
Publisher: The MIT Press
Book Reviews of The Little Schemer - 4th Edition
Book Review: A Great Little Introduction to Computation
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a delightful little book that talks about recursive functions
and computation, and almost accidentally introduces the reader a few
important bits of the Scheme programming language. The format is a
question and answer dialog in two columns, and the reader is expected
to try and answer questions for themselves before looking at them.
Experienced programmers reading this book will find reminders about
why programming is a joyful activity. Novices will be rewarded if they
actually try to work out the answers for themselves: the answers cover
some of most beautiful and meaningful concepts in computer science.
The book covers a lot of ground. It starts by drilling the reader on
how to understand recursive structures (lists and numbers) and develop
functions to operate on them. People familiar with recursion will
probably breeze through this, but for everyone else it is worth
sweating through the details. The last 70 pages move fast: a
functional approach to programming, programming with continuations,
unsolvable problems, recursion as function application (the
Y-Combinator!), and a simple Scheme interpreter, are all introduced
with a sequence of probing questions, perceptive answers, a few cute
cartoons, and many references to foods. All the code examples can be
run in nearly any recent Scheme implementation, and doing so would go
a long way towards enjoying the material.
If one had to criticise this book it would probably be for covering
too much too quickly! The concepts covered here often take months (or
years) to understand, leave alone master. It would be easy for a
novice to miss the point here: the book is a taste of why computation
is a subject of great elegance and beauty, and is meant to make the
reader want to go out and study the subject in great detail. It is
really hinting at the great ideas out there awaiting the reader. Next
time you try Schönfinkelisation you will always be glad you read a
books like this!
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