false 7581975 429605 43713 0262510871 9780262510875 15 <![CDATA[Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - 2nd Edition]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170211338m/43713.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170211338s/43713.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43713.Structure_and_Interpretation_of_Computer_Programs_2nd_Edition 4.64 70 Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs teaches readers how to program by employing the tools of abstraction and modularity. The authors' central philosophy is that programming is the task of breaking large problems into small ones. The book spends a great deal of time considering both this decomposition and the process of knitting the smaller pieces back together.

The authors employ this philosophy in their writing technique. The text asks the broad question "What is programming?" Having come to the conclusion that programming consists of procedures and data, the authors set off to explore the related questions of "What is data?" and "What is a procedure?"

The authors build up the simple notion of a procedure to dizzying complexity. The discussion culminates in the description of the code behind the programming language Scheme. The authors finish with examples of how to implement some of the book's concepts on a register machine. Through this journey, the reader not only learns how to program, but also how to think about programming.

]]> 24590 4.59 96 18 1996 4 0 false Wed Apr 02 20:36:42 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 11 09:47:02 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 11 09:48:38 -0700 2007
Wowsers, this book exposes some occult programming concepts and gives a solid grounding in how programming languages work.

Scheme is the programming language used for exposition.]]>