The Scheme Programming Language, fourth edition

The book is written like any technical book ought to be : with a good amount of details but without futile digressions.That is how the book manage to cover everything from syntax to standard library, finishing with some examples that are idiomatic, simple to follow yet not trivial (for the record, one of the example is taken from "The C programming language" to illustrate the versatility of Scheme - although I tend to prefer the C version :-)).A word of caution, though : this edition covers R6RS which is not widely implemented yet (and perhaps will never be). So be prepared to adapt some of the sample to suit your implementation.I bought the book to learn how syntax extension works because reading the doc that comes with my Scheme implementation left me with only a vague notion of this part of the language. I had the impression that this was a quite difficult topic. To my satisfaction, this impression vanished after having read the dedicated chapter of this book.So all in all, an excellent read !

Thi book provides a comprehensive and well-explained presentation of the Scheme programming language as described in R6RS. Although the documents for R6RS are publicly available [...], this book is far more readable and understandable. Every concept is explained through small code samples (unlike the R6RS documents), which helps a lot in understanding how things work. Also, at the end of each chapter there are many interesting exercises (some not trivial at all).This Scheme book might not be as innovative as others, and textbooks like  Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, Second Edition  better explain how to properly use Scheme's unique features. But it is a book that should stand on the bookshelf of any R6RS programmer. I will surely use it many times as a reference.

Good Book!

Used book was in great condition.

It's a fine reference book but be warned, especially if you're new to using a Kindle: You can't read it on the device.I was disappointed by this as one of the primary reasons I bought a Kindle was to have language references handy on the run.The book itself? It's good. Dybvig explains things clearly and provides many examples. Most of which are "worked out", showing each step along an evaluation.It is not, however, ideal for people learning Scheme for the first time but it would be a great companion to an introductory book such as "The Little Lisper."

TSPL is definitely a book I'll keep even after I'm done with the class I bought it for. It's a great reference for everything Scheme, from beginner's concepts to advanced ideas. Especially useful are Chapter 6, which covers all operations for built-in objects, and the list of forms in the back, which covers seemingly _every_ predicate, method, etc.This book is also worth having in paper format. The online copy is nice, but it doesn't have the same easy referability of the paper version.

I think the book is not useful as a first book for learning the Scheme language, instead it is very important as a reference. I don't open it very often, but when I need to know something about the language, I do it because I a can find the answer.

Great text for learning scheme. I got into Scheme first because I heard it's more minimal than Common Lisp. Scheme was developed at MIT's AI lab and this book is published by MIT press, so I would trust this book.

This book just seemed to be pitched at my level. I thought SICP was great but it left me wanting to know more about scheme itself. I'm coming from a background where things like "closure" and "continuation" don't mean anything. And just what *is* a macro? Well I'd puzzled out the first two and read various Lisp articals about macros. But scheme's macros seemed incredibly arcane. Why are there so many (lisp-like, define-syntax, syntax-rules, syntax-case)? And even others that people have invented. So I searched the net and stuumbled on TSPL. Wow. I know you can read this online (so if you want a look you don't have to pay Amazon anything!) but I like technical books in dead-tree form. So I bought it and regretted nothing. syntax-rules make perfect sense! Maybe I'll grok syntax-case in the end! It's also a great R6RS reference.

Here we have one of the standard books in the world of scheme programming, known and recommended in computer science departments around the world. Tough, dry, authoratative; I am about a third of the way through my first reading of it, and I know that I will have another go in a few months' time. And maybe another go after that. For example, chapter three, 'Going Further' ambles steadily through serious recursion then hits us with continuations and CPS. Great fun.Ernestly recommended if you like scheme, or if you are chasing a CompSci degree.

Dybvig's book is an excellent but terse tutorial and reference on Scheme.Writtem in the tradition of Kernighan and Ritchie 'The C Programming Language' it provides a complete description of the language in a very short amount of space.I found this approach in keeping with the Language, scheme is a small and very expressive language.It sits on my desk next to K&R, Hanson, Stoustroup, Graham, Stevens and Steele.

Before I started with Scheme, I bought the 4th edition of this book. It describes R6RS in a way that helps to understand the language while offering a large toolkit of functions. However, it is quite dry sometimes (therefore I'd call it a reference, not a tutorial). As I am working with Gambit-C (a Scheme compiler targeting C) which only implements R5RS, I decided to buy this edition too.It is the first book that I own in multiple editions and it is totally worth it.If you can't decide between buying "The Scheme Programming Language" and "The Little Schemer" and would like to not waste your money, buy the former!

Good and low cost!!! Aaaaaaaaa+