[plt-scheme] Re: HTDP Exercise 12.4.2 ... Help! (Solved!!)

On May 3, 8:33 pm, "Todd O'Bryan" <toddobr... at gmail.com> wrote:
> Skip it and come back. This problem is very tough and some of the
> later problems might make it easier for you, especially some of the
> binary tree stuff, because you think about recursion in a different
> way.
>

I don't think thats the problem.
I see this situation as analogous to what happens with  those calculus
word problems they give you when all you have been taught is
differentiation.

Since you don't know anything else you take the derivative of some
funny looking equation you don't really understand, pray to the God of
partial credit, check the back of the book and lo and behold the right
answer.

If you allow other stuff from your background to infiltrate that
process you can go all around the houses trying different stuff. That
is exactly what readers who come to this book with "form" tend to do.

Since the readership of this book is clearly not restricted to
programming virgin (how many people self select this as the first book
to learn programming from) I wonder whether this problem would not
serve a greater good as an example (in a Little Schemerish sort of
way) illustrating exactly how far the design recipe approach can take
you.

That way people get empowered by the knowledge rather than
discouraged.