[plt-scheme] Great books on algorithms?

On 11/8/07, Shriram Krishnamurthi <sk at cs.brown.edu> wrote:
> There are *lots* of things I want students to know before they step
> into grad school.  Should we teach them *all* of that in their first
> semester of programming?
>

No, not all of course.

> I'm still trying to make sense of your posting.  It doesn't even begin
> to compute.
>

It is simply a matter of vocabulary and introductory notions. I think
that the use of the terms mutation/mutatble structures/mutator and
their corresponding semantics in HtDP is nicely done and I, for one,
would not like to to see that "out." I feel that HtDP introduces
mutation at the right place and that this material is appropriate for
beginners.

I have had advanced undergraduate students that have been more capable
of digesting some classical research articles by being familiar with
these terms. Students that were not exposed to these terms struggled
more. This is just an observation from my little corner of the world
and based on it I would not like to see these terms and their
treatment dropped.

I would also point out that most textbooks do not use the mutation
lingo (they use the term assignment) nor do they do a good job of
explaining what assignment is. HtDP does a nice job at the right level
for the intended audience. I am simply arguing for keeping mutation as
a term students are exposed to in HtDP.

Cheers,

Marco