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A review by naleagdeco
The Little Schemer, Fourth Edition by Matthias Felleisen, Daniel P. Friedman
4.0
Reader response, freshly finished: Unsure how I feel about this book.
I really love the didactic style. I found it easy to keep pace. It taught Scheme in a really digestible way .... until the end.
At least, I think it stopped being that digestible by the end. As someone who knows Scheme and understands the concepts (reasonably well), I found slowing down to be difficult, and I also didn't feel the book convinced me why I'd go through the contortions the latter half of the book made me go through.
With my "non-programmer" hat on, I was willing to take the leaps of faith required in the first half of the book while it immediately paid off, by about "Shadows" I stopped seeing why I was learning what I was learning. The authors were being too cute (or maybe holding onto too much for the sequel "The Seasoned Schemer")
Anyone who wants to teach someone programming concepts would do well to learn this book and encourage the use of a REPL. It's a great book for someone who understands programming languages, PL theory, and PL concepts to learn how to teach them to others in an approachable way.
I'd like to see how someone who has no idea or agenda for learning how to program would do with this book. I feel most people would really benefit from the first half and then get frustrated by the second.
I really love the didactic style. I found it easy to keep pace. It taught Scheme in a really digestible way .... until the end.
At least, I think it stopped being that digestible by the end. As someone who knows Scheme and understands the concepts (reasonably well), I found slowing down to be difficult, and I also didn't feel the book convinced me why I'd go through the contortions the latter half of the book made me go through.
With my "non-programmer" hat on, I was willing to take the leaps of faith required in the first half of the book while it immediately paid off, by about "Shadows" I stopped seeing why I was learning what I was learning. The authors were being too cute (or maybe holding onto too much for the sequel "The Seasoned Schemer")
Anyone who wants to teach someone programming concepts would do well to learn this book and encourage the use of a REPL. It's a great book for someone who understands programming languages, PL theory, and PL concepts to learn how to teach them to others in an approachable way.
I'd like to see how someone who has no idea or agenda for learning how to program would do with this book. I feel most people would really benefit from the first half and then get frustrated by the second.