- Hardcover: 616 pages
- Publisher: Mit Pr (February 1994)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0262082268
- ISBN-13: 978-0262082266
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 20.8 x 4.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.6 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
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For anyone learning the Scheme programming language, the second edition of Simply Scheme: Introducing Computer Science provides a very digestible textbook-style introductory tutorial to this powerful and elegant language.
In the words of the authors, Simply Scheme is designed to be a "prequel" to another book, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. This latter title has been a staple of introductory computer science courses for years, but it assumes a certain background.
Simply Scheme works hard to make the somewhat tricky ideas of Scheme accessible. This tutorial stresses small sections on key language features, from basic functions, variables, and onward to recursion and other functional programming concepts. While languages like C++ and Java use objects to model data, Scheme programmers break a problem down into functions. The art--and elegance--of problem solving in Scheme comes from applying recursion and other design concepts.
Longer code samples in the book include a tic-tac-toe game, examples that work with poker and bridge, and a working spreadsheet demo. Throughout, the book employs a friendly and jargon-free approach to programming. This book is as much about thinking like Scheme as it is about the basic nuts and bolts of the language. Sections on using software patterns in Scheme help bring this new edition up to date.
Though not often used in business, Scheme and its cousin Common Lisp (which the book describes in an appendix) are still favored by computer scientists, for example, in artificial intelligence research. Simple Scheme succeeds in making a difficult programming language both approachable and accessible. It's a valuable resource to any computer science student who is taking Scheme on for the first time. --Richard Dragan
Topics covered: Scheme language fundamentals, functions and higher-order functions, variables, lambda basics, recursion, abstraction, software patterns in Scheme, lists, trees, sequential programming, working with files, vectors, Common Lisp. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
Should programming be a matter of learning where to put the semicolon and goto? According to Harvey and Wright, absolutely not. Programming, especially when you're starting off, is about the big picture, learning how to use your imagination and not your grammar. The authors use Scheme, a dialect of Lisp, as their base. Scheme and Lisp are symbolic programs that let you create programs that will write programs. Exercises throughout with Scheme help you get up to speed quickly and even have a good time. The first half of the book makes you comfortable with functions, leading you to projects involving bridge games and tic-tac-toe. In the second half, you deal with recursion, abstraction, files, and vectors. By the end of these chapters, you're ready to use Scheme to tackle databases and spreadsheets. Simply Scheme proves that programming can be accessible as long as it stimulates, rather than deadens, the imagination. This book will give you a sense of the inner workings of computer applications like no other.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Weak,
By Kenghis Khan (nprvl,il,usa) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Simply Scheme: Introducing Computer Science (Hardcover)
The extra star is for the excessive effort these guys had to put in for what they did. It was not very effective. The biggest problem of this book is that it's full of confusing explanations the designers hoped would be "heuristic." This problem permeates the work from start to finish. The use of the special commands by the authors, not part of standard scheme, makes very little sense in most classroom settings that teach Scheme in the hopes of teaching functional programming. The whole idea of functional programming is that you have a bare group of essential concepts AND commands, and work your way from there. I had the great misfortune of taking a class where we weren't allowed to use the specially designed scheme commands for this book, but still had to buy it. If you are in that predicament, the book is completely worthless. Furthermore, while I admire the author's desire to prepare people for SICP, their treatment of this task borders on arrogance. At one point they actually suggest that "SICP was designed for MIT students" and that the rest of us aren't worthy of it yet. Quite frankly for anybody willing to take the time, SICP is not as terrifying as these guys make it out to be. This is a weak book.
2.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting read,
This review is from: Simply Scheme: Introducing Computer Science (Hardcover)
Scheme itself is a terse declarative programming language with few (more likely zero) industrial uses. However the important and fundamental concepts in computer science are well demonstrated by the authors here. The book does serve fairly well as preparation for SICP but if that is the books purpose then the authors may as use raw mathematical predicates which is alot easier to read than Scheme code. The library code provided by the authors is vital for doing the exercises and codingwithout these is not considered making the book a weak reference manual. The book is also too long for a single semester course which means you may as well undertake Knuth's volumes if you are in a long course.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simpy Scheme,
By A Customer
This review is from: Simply Scheme: Introducing Computer Science (Hardcover)
I read this book in preparation for a computer science cource (taught by one of it's authors). I chose the book because the course was taught in Scheme, and I had not encountered the language before. I must say that this is an excellent book. While it may use some non-standard extensions to the language, in general, it does a good job of teaching Scheme. I feel that after I read the book, I was thorougly prepared to read SICP, the main text in my comp sci course. The non-technical and sometimes humorous style made Simply Scheme an easy reading, and allowed me to concentrate on the concepts rather than the jargon.
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