Just got the Little Schemer

Tue Jan 19, 2010

I just got

Cover of the Little Schemer

through my company book-order (I also got The Reasoned Schemer, but I want to finish the first one before I move on).

It's at once an exercise book for Scheme/CL, and the gentlest introduction to recursive programming I've seen. I'm already fairly comfortable with both, so this is really just a refresher for me, but I could see someone new to functional programming (or programming in general) getting some serious mileage out of the text.

If you fit that description and are interested, the Schemer Trilogy is easily worth the $70 Amazon is charging.

EDIT: Ok, wow. I figured I'd breeze through this, given my experience with Scheme and recursion, but 5 chapters in, it's getting pretty interesting. It's obvious that my model of recursion was incomplete if not outright broken earlier, but dammit, I'm progressing. In any case, my point is: even if you think you're fairly familiar with Scheme, consider picking these up.

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