From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id KAA27675; Fri, 14 Mar 2003 10:51:38 +0100 (MET) X-Authentication-Warning: pauillac.inria.fr: majordomo set sender to owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr using -f Received: from concorde.inria.fr (concorde.inria.fr [192.93.2.39]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id KAA26771 for ; Fri, 14 Mar 2003 10:51:37 +0100 (MET) X-SPAM-Warning: Sending machine is listed in blackholes.five-ten-sg.com Received: from web41204.mail.yahoo.com (web41204.mail.yahoo.com [66.218.93.37]) by concorde.inria.fr (8.11.1/8.11.1) with SMTP id h2E9paf19017 for ; Fri, 14 Mar 2003 10:51:36 +0100 (MET) Message-ID: <20030314095135.84497.qmail@web41204.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [195.224.189.78] by web41204.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Fri, 14 Mar 2003 01:51:35 PST Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 01:51:35 -0800 (PST) From: Noel Welsh Subject: Re: [Caml-list] poll - need for a good introductory OCaml book (LONG) To: Sergey Goldgaber , Caml-list In-Reply-To: <20030314081208.86223.qmail@web11004.mail.yahoo.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Spam: no; 0.00; noelwelsh:01 caml-list:01 introductory:99 sergey:99 stumbling:01 recursion:01 inference:01 dynamically:01 ocaml:01 purely:02 o'caml:02 business:96 wrote:03 scheme:03 textbook:04 Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk --- Sergey Goldgaber wrote: > Coming from a purely imperative background I found > the following > concepts the biggest stumbling blocks in my attempts > at learning > OCaml: functional style, recursion, type inference The PLT people has done a lot of work on teaching Scheme (think of it as dynamically typed O'Caml ;-) to beginner programmers. I've run some courses teaching Scheme to programmers with a lot of Java experience but little FPL experience and it has gone very well. I recommend that anyone considering writing an introductory book on O'Caml take a look at their work: http://htdp.org/ is the "how to program" textbook http://htus.org/ is the "how to do useful things" companion (in progress) http://teachscheme.org/ is the project Whilst HtDP doesn't go far enough for the type of book people on this list are talking about the basic approach to teaching is well worth imitating. It's also worth looking at for anyone trying to learn O'Caml (don't suffer from Not Invented Here syndrome!) Noel __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - establish your business online http://webhosting.yahoo.com ------------------- To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr Archives: http://caml.inria.fr Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs FAQ: http://caml.inria.fr/FAQ/ Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners