[plt-scheme] Re: 2 books

On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:55:28 +0100,
"keydana at gmx.de"
<keydana at gmx.de> wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>the "one eyed man" thread reminded me of a question I'd wanted to ask for some time - I'd very much like to know your 
>opinions on two books which I thought might be "authoritative", but have not yet seen mentioned on this list (well, I could 
>have missed it of course):
>
>http://www.amazon.com/Design-Concepts-Programming-Languages-Franklyn/dp/0262201755/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books-intl-de&qid=1260542775&sr=8-1
>
>and
>
>http://www.amazon.com/Concepts-Techniques-Models-Computer-Programming/dp/0262220695/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books-intl-de&qid=1260542477&sr=8-1
>
>
>I've bought both of them, but have not touched the second yet (because this would take quite some time to read). Regarding the first one, I read the first 200 pages or so
>but had problems understanding, so I decided to read PLAI first and perhaps come back to it later.
>
>I'd like to know what you think of these books?

I haven't read the first, so I can't comment about it.

Regarding the second, however, I have read parts of it before, and
found the scope and level of sophistication of the material to be
somewhat similar to that of SICP.

So far, I haven't read any negative reviews of this book.  Most
readers seem to find the book interesting to read.  The only major
complaint that I have heard so far is that the book is very long.

Personally, I found the parts that I had read to be interesting as
well.  The book seems to be well-structured and comprehensive.  My pet
peeve with the book is that it doesn't seem quite as inspirational as
SICP, although it seems to make up for this by not apparently not
relying as much as SICP on ah-hoc insight for the some of the examples
and exercises.  Some of the examples and exercises in SICP are written
in such a manner that without ad-hoc insight, it is not possible to
proceed.

There is a CTM wiki at the following site:

Main Page - CTMWiki
http://www.codepoetics.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

The following are some relevant reviews and comments on Lambda the
Ultimate:

CTM | Lambda the Ultimate
http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/829

CTM wiki | Lambda the Ultimate
http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/521

CTM tour during the week of Nov. 7 | Lambda the Ultimate
http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/869

If you search hard enough on the Internet, you may be able to find an
early draft version of the book in PDF format (let me know if you
absolutely cannot find it).

-- Benjamin L. Russell
-- 
Benjamin L. Russell  /   DekuDekuplex at Yahoo dot com
Translator/Interpreter / Mobile:  +011 81 80-3603-6725
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