The Little Schemer, fourth editionThe notion that "thinking about computing is one of the most exciting things the human mind can do" sets both The Little Schemer (formerly known as The Little LISPer) and its new companion volume, The Seasoned Schemer, apart from other books on LISP. The authors' enthusiasm for their subject is compelling as they present abstract concepts in a humorous and easy-to-grasp fashion. Together, these books will open new doors of thought to anyone who wants to find out what computing is really about. The Little Schemer introduces computing as an extension of arithmetic and algebra; things that everyone studies in grade school and high school. It introduces programs as recursive functions and briefly discusses the limits of what computers can do. The authors use the programming language Scheme, and interesting foods to illustrate these abstract ideas. The Seasoned Schemer informs the reader about additional dimensions of computing: functions as values, change of state, and exceptional cases. The Little LISPer has been a popular introduction to LISP for many years. It had appeared in French and Japanese. The Little Schemer and The Seasoned Schemer are worthy successors and will prove equally popular as textbooks for Scheme courses as well as companion texts for any complete introductory course in Computer Science. |
Contents
2 Do It Do It Again and Again and Again | 14 |
3 Cons the Magnificent | 32 |
4 Numbers Games | 58 |
6 Shadows | 96 |
7 Friends and Relations 110 | 110 |
8 Lambda the Ultimate 124 | 124 |
Intermission 192 | 192 |
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Common terms and phrases
a-friend add1 length cdr addtup arithmetic expression bacon lettuce car cdr aexp car cdr cdr car set1 caviar cdr tup2 Commandment cond atom cond eq cond null cond zero cons car lat cons new cons cons old consed define insertR empty list eqlist eternity evens-only*&co insert-g keep-looking lambda a lat lambda length lambda mk-length lambda name lambda new old lambda set1 set2 lambda x last-try lettuce and tomato lettuce tomato Little Schemer makeset meaning of cons meat gravy mk-length mk-length multiinsertL multiinsertLR&co multirember a cdr multirember-f multirember&co natural recursion nexp non-empty list non-primitive null list old cdr lat old lat pair pora potatoes and meat primitive programs question recurring rember a cdr rember a lat rember-f test representation S-expressions salad Scheme Seasoned Schemer sub1 subset true or false tuna tuna salad tup1 tup2 u v w vals value of member will-stop write the function Y combinator
