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 LAA30512; Fri, 14 Mar 2003 11:47:42 +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 LAA30071 for ; Fri, 14 Mar 2003 11:47:41 +0100 (MET) X-SPAM-Warning: Sending machine is listed in blackholes.five-ten-sg.com Received: from web41213.mail.yahoo.com (web41213.mail.yahoo.com [66.218.93.46]) by concorde.inria.fr (8.11.1/8.11.1) with SMTP id h2EAlef23505 for ; Fri, 14 Mar 2003 11:47:40 +0100 (MET) Message-ID: <20030314104739.74320.qmail@web41213.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [195.224.189.78] by web41213.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Fri, 14 Mar 2003 02:47:39 PST Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 02:47:39 -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: <20030314103626.84986.qmail@web11008.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 sicp:01 robby:99 cookbook:01 dialect:01 statically:01 ocaml:01 lisp:01 syntax:02 o'caml:02 business:96 compares:03 Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk --- Sergey Goldgaber wrote: > How would you say it compares to the SICP? SICP is an excellent book that touches on just about every field of computer science and I also highly recommend it, but it isn't the best way to learn programming. The PLT folk have written their own critique of SICP http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~robby/publications/papers/htdp-sicp-fdpe2002.pdf which gives some of the background to their own work with How to Design Programs. > Someone here mentioned "Programming Perl". The > earlier, Perl 4 > version, was what I'd consider a tutorial. It > wasn't at all math > heavy and was very practical. "The Perl Cookbook" > is another > amazing book I agree that these are both good practical books. Neither SICP or HtDP have the same aim so it would be wrong to compare them. If you after "The O'Caml Cookbook" neither SICP or HtDP will get you any further along that goal. On the other hand, if you want to think more in a functional style they help. > But the downside is that they use Lisp, > and that means that I have to learn yet another > language. The Scheme dialect actually, but anyway... I think its well worth learning Scheme. In many ways O'Caml is a statically Scheme, with somewhat different syntax. 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