[plt-scheme] Great books on algorithms?

On 11/7/07, Matthias Felleisen <matthias at ccs.neu.edu> wrote:
>
> On Nov 7, 2007, at 6:31 PM, Prabhakar Ragde wrote:
>
> > Matthias Felleisen wrote:
> >
> >> Ah of course! This is brilliant. It's going straight into HtDP/2e.
> >> Except that mutation is going out anyway. Dang.
> >
> > Say it ain't so! What is brilliant is the explanation of mutation
> > in sections 39 and 40. I've even had students say this. I may have
> > to compile notes on "all the good stuff they left out of the second
> > edition". --PR
>
> Thanks. They will stay on-line but we need the space to introduce
> "real-looking" projects into HtDP so that students think they learned
> something :-)
>
> Most people never truly understand HtDP. Because when they went to
> school -- can you hear the chest-beating -- they knew how to write
> real applications at the end of the first course, programs that
> consumed real inputs and that produced visible outputs. Games! Yes,
> and their grandmother played them. More chest beating in the background.
>
> So sorry but we will offer them for people like you and Matthias
> (version 1.0) teaching at Rice. -- Matthias
>

At the risk of being old-fashioned (which I may very well be and
proudly so at times), eliminating the term "mutation" in a certain
sense eliminates CS history. Can I imagine my students growing up
without ever being exposed to this term? How many classical articles
will require extra translation on their part by ommiting this term?

"Mutation" does not conjure horro flicks or the such in the CS
context. It is quite accurate......you are mutating a memory cell. :-)
Let's keep in mind the bunch that will go beyond to graduate school
and need such vocabulary.

Cheers,

Marco