Re: Industrial-strength Scheme class.

[Kent Dybvig <dyb%indiana.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA>]

I think you might do well to look at the new "Little Lisper", by
Dan Friedman and Matthias Felleisen.  Every program seems to work
without modification in Chez Scheme, and I believe there is no
problem with other Schemes either (i.e., Scheme84, TIPC Scheme).

The Little Lisper starts out the way the old one did, teaching the
student about recursion, lists, etc.  But the new edition also
covers first-class functions, even going so far as to introduce
a "by-value" Y-combinator.  The code for a Scheme interpreter is
given in the book.

Assignments, continuations, and engines are not covered in the LL,
but that's alright since these topics are better left until after
you cover the material in the LL.  You should definitely cover set!
after you get through the LL.  As for continations and engines, I
find that people are able to pick up and enjoy engines in a short
time period, but that continuations confuse them.  So if you have
extra time left over, I would definitely cover engines.

I think the LL is more suited to a short class than the A&S text;
for a longer class I would cover the LL first, then A&S.  The LL
is also a "self-study" text, so that what you don't cover in class
the students can pick up easily on their own.

Dan may be able to tell you more about it (dfried@indiana).  I'm
sure that SRA would send you a copy if you tell them what you need
it for.

Kent Dybvig
dyb.indiana@csnet-relay (CSNET)
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