Product Description

This text is a companion volume to "The Seasoned Schemer" and includes thoughts for anyone who wants to know what computing is about and to learn the physics of cyberspace. The information is presented in a humorous and easy-to-grasp fashion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #148113 in Books
• Published on: 1996-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 216 pages

Customer Reviews

Don't be fooled by the cute elephants!
This is an excellent book, and my understanding of recursion was greatly enhanced. I am going to use Scheme in a programming class next year, and this was just the introduction I needed. But even though this book is thin and is illustrated in a cute way, the last couple chapters of this book are very difficult. The day I finished reading it, I went to the doctor and my blood pressure was up a good deal, because of the brain-wracking I undertook while reading it (mainly the ninth, next to last chapter). It's a classic, and you don't actually need a Scheme interpreter to use it. I didn't use one, though I made sure to do the exercises on paper, and checked them carefully. If you get this book, prepare for quite a (brutal) mind stretcher.

Not for reference -- a good tutorial
If you've never used Scheme before, this book
is an excellent tutorial. And it is a
tutorial. Do not attempt to jump ahead or
skip sections. The authors build upon what
was covered in previous sections in a fashion
unique to this text. And that was it's big-
gest weakness for me. Once I have read some-
thing, I don't want to reread the entire text
to catch a small point I missed earlier.

10 for tutorial, 3 for reference.

Excellent tutorial...
This is an excellent tutorial - although don't buy it if you require a reference work.

As for complaints that it is highly cryptic text: Well, I disagree - everything is clearly and logically presented and terms are introduced (yes - car, cdr, cons and lambda are all defined in the opening chapters). To say they are not seems to be evidence of at least one reviewer not paying attention!

Perhaps the best aspect of this book is the way it trains your movement of thought through code in the recursive way needed to fully grok Scheme and other LISP like languages.