Synopsis
An introductory-level text for students who are not majoring in computer
science as well as for computer science majors with no prior programming
experience, Simply Scheme teaches computer science from a
functional/symbolic point of view. It provides a solid platform from
which students can go on to study the seminal work Structure and
Interpretation of Computer Programs. Beginners will find the authors'
approach sophisticated yet conversational and unintimidating. Using
Scheme, a modern dialect of Lisp, they teach fundamental ideas and
concepts of computer science -- composition of functions, function as
object, recursion, abstraction (data abstraction and procedural
abstraction), and sequential (non-functional) techniques -- in a way
that avoids confusing technical pitfalls. Interesting nonmathematical
programming examples use words and sentences as data; practical examples
are represented by miniature spreadsheet and database programs. Simply
Scheme devotes five chapters to recursion, presenting distinct ways for
readers to think about this watershed idea. There is also a chapter on
file input/output, and students are able to work on substantial,
realistic programming projects in the first semester. Compared to
Pascal- or C-based texts, Simply Scheme has many advantages in its use
of the Scheme programming language. Scheme is interactive and allows for
ease of program development and debugging; its first-class functions and
automatic storage allocation provide a high level of abstraction so that
programmers can concentrate on the desired goal instead of on the
computer; its simple, uniform syntax doesn't take up months of class
time. Simply Scheme differs from other Scheme-based books in its
detailed and thorough exploration of the beginning steps in computer
science. In addition to its emphasis on recursion, it also explores
higher-order procedures and trees in depth, leaving object-oriented
programming and the more difficult environment model for a later course.
Simply Scheme extends the standard Scheme language with word and
sentence data types to make symbolic programming easier for beginners.
It also features a series of large sample programs and a series of
suggested large programming projects. Download the program files for use
with the book
About the Author
Brian Harvey, author of Computer Science Logo Style, is a lecturer in
the Computer Science Department at the University of California,
Berkeley. Matthew Wright is a researcher at the Center for New Music and
Audio Technologies at the University of California, Berkeley.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
