From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from concorde.inria.fr (concorde.inria.fr [192.93.2.39]) by yquem.inria.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 99661BC2F for ; Thu, 25 Nov 2004 21:39:55 +0100 (CET) Received: from pauillac.inria.fr (pauillac.inria.fr [128.93.11.35]) by concorde.inria.fr (8.13.0/8.13.0) with ESMTP id iAPKdr9e024795 for ; Thu, 25 Nov 2004 21:39:53 +0100 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 VAA18012 for ; Thu, 25 Nov 2004 21:39:53 +0100 (MET) Received: from smtp-bedford.mitre.org (smtpproxy1.mitre.org [192.160.51.76]) by concorde.inria.fr (8.13.0/8.13.0) with ESMTP id iAPKdq66024790 for ; Thu, 25 Nov 2004 21:39:52 +0100 Received: from smtp-bedford.mitre.org (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by smtp-bedford.mitre.org (8.11.6/8.11.6) with SMTP id iAPKdpG08965 for ; Thu, 25 Nov 2004 15:39:51 -0500 Received: from smtp-bedford.mitre.org (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by smtp-bedford.mitre.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 73B77BF01 for ; Thu, 25 Nov 2004 15:39:51 -0500 (EST) Received: from linus.mitre.org (linus.mitre.org [129.83.10.1]) by smtp-bedford.mitre.org (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id iAPKdpJ08918; Thu, 25 Nov 2004 15:39:51 -0500 Received: from malabar.mitre.org.mitre.org (malabar.mitre.org [129.83.10.30]) by linus.mitre.org (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id iAPKdoBJ023360; Thu, 25 Nov 2004 15:39:50 -0500 (EST) Sender: guttman@linus.mitre.org To: whenning@ucsd.edu Cc: caml-list@inria.fr, guttman@mitre.org (Joshua D. Guttman) Subject: Re: [Caml-list] Experiences with learning OCaml? Reply-To: guttman@mitre.org (Joshua D. Guttman disp: current) References: <3033.66.167.163.102.1101382830.squirrel@acs-webmail.ucsd.edu> From: guttman@mitre.org (Joshua D. Guttman) Date: 25 Nov 2004 15:39:50 -0500 In-Reply-To: <3033.66.167.163.102.1101382830.squirrel@acs-webmail.ucsd.edu> Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Miltered: at concorde with ID 41A64319.000 by Joe's j-chkmail (http://j-chkmail.ensmp.fr)! X-Miltered: at concorde with ID 41A64318.001 by Joe's j-chkmail (http://j-chkmail.ensmp.fr)! X-Spam: no; 0.00; caml-list:01 ocaml:01 ucsd:01 parentheses:01 felleisen:01 ocaml:01 writes:01 pair:01 clearer:01 computation:01 suited:01 functional:02 languages:03 languages:03 programming:03 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.0 (2004-09-13) on yquem.inria.fr X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.0 required=5.0 tests=none autolearn=disabled version=3.0.0 X-Spam-Level: whenning@ucsd.edu writes: > > > Although I've of course Googled around for potential books to > select, are there any ones particularly suited for someone in my > position? > In my opinion, a splendid book that's full of insights into computation and languages and how to solve problems is Abelson and Sussman, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (MIT Press). It uses Scheme, which has the infamous parentheses, but really those aren't as bad as you think. In fact, they're a syntactically minimal way of writing programs, which doesn't get in your way when thinking about problems. An outstanding Scheme implementation is PLT Scheme from Felleisen and his colleagues, now at Northeastern. Having taken a tour through Abelson and Sussman, you're sure to feel at home in OCaml or other functional languages, and probably look at programming in any language with a clearer pair of eyes. Joshua -- Joshua D. Guttman MITRE, Mail Stop S119 Office: +1 781 271 2654 202 Burlington Rd. Fax: +1 781 271 8953 Bedford, MA 01730-1420 USA Cell: +1 781 526 5713