Re: Scheme programming pointers

[Hugh S. Myers]

Scheme (now known as Racket for some silly reason) is actually a version of one of the oldest computer languages we have—Lisp. Google around for its history, it's impressive. Regards your question of more like a spreadsheet than run the answer is a good solid 'sorta'! Without getting too deep, Lisp is what we language geeks call Functional, while languages like Basic are Imperative. So Basic has commands that you string together, do this, do that, do the other thing. Now go back and do it again etc. If you can follow a recipe, you can learn to program Basic. Lisp, not so much. The idea that it is just a calculator usually come from most peoples first introduction. Something like:

> (+ 2 3)

5

> 

or:

> (* 5 (+ 2 3))

25

> 

Nothing that looks like commands, just a kind of backward calculator thingy. On the other hand, you can also say something like:

> (cdr (cons (cons 4 5) (cons 6 7)))

'(6 . 7)

> 

which doesn't look like a calculator because it has words and such.

Part of my poor ability to explain stems from the fact that I've known Lisp since the 70's and there is a lot that I don't even think about (don't have to, it's wired in) anymore. I learned to program because I was fascinated by programming languages, sort of a geek's geek so I tend to forget what the beginnings are like.

For more information, Google Imperative, Functional, Lisp and the phrase Scheme Tutorial. If you like books, you might want a copy of "The Little Schemer" by Daniel P. Friedmann and Matthias Felleisen. You might be able to find a copy of "Simply Scheme" by Brian Harvey and Matthew Wright as well. MIT used to use Scheme as it's first language for programmers so hang in there it's a good one to start with.

--hsm

On Tue, Dec 5, 2017 at 5:53 PM, Karlin High <address@hidden> wrote:

On Tue, Dec 5, 2017 at 6:39 PM, Chris Yate <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> https://scheme-book.ursliska.de
>
> However, this is an area where Scheme is quite different from other
> languages

The times I've looked at Scheme, I got the impression that it works
more like spreadsheet formulas that just "calculate" rather than other
programming languages that "run." Is that anywhere near correct?
--
Karlin High
Missouri, USA

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