Quote:Original post by Alpha_ProgDes

Quote:Original post by chollida1

Quote:Original post by Anonymous Poster
I think it might be a good idea to write a short conceptual introduction to what functional programming entails and how it is different from imperative style. Failure to grasp this (there are OTHER ways of writing programs than as sequences of assignments) leads to pain, as Alpha_ProgDes and others have illustrated in the past when they tried to tackle SICP.

Presumably, many students will have prior programming experience with imperative languages only, which is annoying for them because they'll try to write C-style scheme and do worse than the absolute beginners.

So I'll try to whip up a short primer on the conceptual underpinnings of FP and imperative style tomorrow, with plenty of examples, and submit it for comment and review. Forewarned is forearmed, and much frustration may be avoided I think if we can get students to understand this early on.

That's a good point, which is why I suggested that people start out by reading The little Schemer first.

It's nice that someone would take time out of their day to write a tutorial on functional programming but the little schemer is about 200 hundred pages and they had 2 follow up books because they couldn't properly describe the gist of functional programming in that space.

Cheers
Chris

Is the The Little Schemer free and online? Right now, I'm broke...

Quote:Original post by Anonymous Poster

Quote:
It's nice that someone would take time out of their day to write a tutorial on functional programming but the little schemer is about 200 hundred pages and they had 2 follow up books because they couldn't properly describe the gist of functional programming in that space.

Are you the next James Joyce?

Does "a short conceptual introduction to what functional programming entails and how it is different from imperative style" mean "a tutorial on functional programming" in your world?

Does "the gist of functional programming" mean "learning the Scheme programming language and loads of scheme techniques in addition to functional programming techniques and everything else in TLS" in your world?

The gist of functional programming is the evaluation rule in the lambda calculus: substitution as computation (and hence referential transparency) instead of mutation of the contents of a variable.

Functional programming techniques are another matter, but the gist of functional programming is so simple that schoolchildren use it in math class all the time. Only when their minds are corrupted by basic does functional programming look weird.

So: I'll ask the students to skim a few paragraphs we'll collaboratively write that'll hopefully save them trouble when tackling the real thing (SICP).

You ask them to buy and read a few books before starting on another book. In a week.

Let's see what approach wins out. ;)