Product Description

This thoroughly updated edition of The Scheme Programming Language provides an introduction to Scheme and a definitive reference for standard Scheme, presented in a clear and concise manner. Written for professionals and students with some prior programming experience, it begins by leading the programmer gently through the basics of Scheme and continues with an introduction to some of the more advanced features of the language. Many exercises are presented to help reinforce the lessons learned, and answers to the exercises are given in a new appendix. Most of the remaining chapters are dedicated to the reference material, which describes in detail the standard features of Scheme included in the Revised Report on Scheme and the ANSI/IEEE standard for Scheme.

Numerous examples are presented throughout the introductory and reference portions of the text, and a unique set of extended example programs and applications, with additional exercises, are presented in the final chapter. Reinforcing the book's utility as a reference text are appendixes that present the formal syntax of Scheme, a summary of standard forms and procedures, and a bibliography of Scheme resources. The Scheme Programming Language stands alone as an introduction to and essential reference for Scheme programmers. It is also useful as a supplementary text for any course that uses Scheme.

The Scheme Programming Language is illustrated by artist Jean-Pierre Hebert, who writes Scheme programs to extend his ability to create sophisticated works of digital art.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25764 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 307 pages

Review
"I have been using previous editions of The Scheme Programming Language in my Programming Language Concepts class for 13 years. The students need to learn the basics of Scheme in a few days, and then to pick up some of the harder concepts as the course progresses. This terse but complete book with its excellent examples fits the bill perfectly. Students quickly learn a lot from this book, and many of them make a point of telling me how much they like it."
—Claude Anderson, Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

"Kent Dybvig's The Scheme Programming Language is to Scheme what Kernighan and Ritchie's The C Programming Language is to C."
—Daniel P. Friedman, Indiana University

"This third edition builds on the strengths of the previous editions and provides a comprehensive, no-nonsense introduction to Scheme. The combination of solidity and finesse displayed in this book makes it a reference text for educated computer scientists. The accompanying software, Petite Chez Scheme, makes it the ideal starting point for any programmer who wants to extend his or her repertoire with Scheme."
—Olivier Danvy, BRICS, University of Aarhus, Denmark, co-Editor-in-Chief of Higher-Order and Symbolic Computation

About the Author
R. Kent Dybvig is Professor of Computer Science at Indiana University and principal developer of Chez Scheme.

Customer Reviews

Good introduction but sometimes lacks clarity.
I purchased this book specifically with a view to learning the Scheme language. The text is easy to read, is pithy and to the point, and generally makes concepts clear and easy to understand. There are however, in my opinion, some sections where the author forgets that concepts are new to the reader and the examples that are used tend to obfuscate the point being made rather than elucidating it.

I have never considered myself stupid, but after my 5th reading of the introduction to continuations I was beginning to worry. A quick reading of another text on the subject cleared up my concerns almost immediately which suggests to me that the explanations are not as clear as they could be. There are some other areas of the book where this sort of assumption makes grasping a new concept more difficult than it should be.

Nonetheless, I still consider this a good introduction to the Scheme language and would gladly recommend it to the aspirant Schemer.

Great book for learning Scheme
I'm a fan of a lot of the popular Scheme or Scheme related books (SICP, The Little Schemer, The Seasoned Schemer). While in some sense this book takes a more pragmatic approach than the aforementioned books, it is no less valuable. I found this book helpful as a teaching aid while learning Scheme, and as a reference for my continued use of the language.

Advanced topics, such as continuations and the syntax-rules and syntax-case macro systems, get good treatment from this book.

Highly recommended.

Very good book for learning.
Very good book for learning. You can follow many examples with a running Scheme interpreter; I recommend it as a must.