Functional programming -- 2009-2010 -- info.uvt.ro/Laboratory/References

Functional programming (Spring 2010): front; laboratory: agenda, references, projects, tools; notes (normal paced): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (Spring 2009); notes (fast paced): 1, 2, 3, 4 (Spring 2010) (discontinued); applications: robots; mailing list: send mail, view archive, subscribe; author: Ciprian Dorin Craciun, ccraciun@info.uvt.ro;

How to use these references?

There are multiple possible approaches, and the one that worked (and still works) for me:

1. find out the philosophy and context of the subject:
   1. starting with the essays list below,
   2. pick any author (I would recommend either Richard Gabriel (softer words), or Paul Graham),
   3. skim their list of titles and pick one that seems nice,
   4. read it (in a comfortable and productive environment),
   5. while reading open links and references (that seem interesting) in new tabs (or write them down),
   6. repeat the loop until you have gained enough information; (this could (and should) take one to three days and it would be better if they are contiguous;)
2. try it for yourself:
   1. starting with the tutorials list below,
   2. pick any tutorial (I would recommend Teach Yourself Scheme in Fixnum Days, by Dorai Sitaram);
   3. start reading the tutorial,
   4. and (THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF LEARNING) DO EXERCISES proposed in the material (at least the easy to medium ones); by do I understand:
      1. think about how to solve the exercise;
      2. solve the exercise by coding it;
      3. test the code by executing it;
      4. play around with the code to make it better readable, more efficient, shorter, but most importantly more aesthetic;
   5. after finishing (at least the medium chapters), try to implement a simple project all by yourself;
3. dig deeper into the matter by reading one or two books; (by reading I understand the same thing as do above);
4. use the whole thing for non-trivial projects;

From our faculty

For the current laboratories there are also other materials available (from our faculty) (on-line):

• Lisp 2008-2009, from one year ago; (the current material (2009-2010) is greatly based on this work, but with (I hope) major improvements);
• Lisp 2006-2007, from three years ago; (in turn the previous material (2008-2009) is greatly based on this work (2006-2007), and this again is based on the material available at the next link;)
• Lisp 2005? -> today, by Cornel Izbasa; (as noted above this is the root of all the above materials;)

Essays

• Paul Graham;
• Richard Gabriel;
• Peter Norvig;

Tutorials

• Scheme tutorials (on-line):
  • Teach Yourself Scheme in Fixnum Days, by Dorai Sitaram;
• Common Lisp tutorials (on-line):
  • Common Lisp;
  • Lisp Quickstart, by Sean Luke;

Exercises

• functional programming (mostly Lisp) (on-line):
  • EECS 325 (course) exercises, by Chris Riesbeck;
  • Some Simple Programming Exercises, by Cley Limited?;
  • Lisp Recursive Programming Exercises, by Peter Roosen-Runge and Yves Lespérance;
  • L-99: Ninety-Nine Lisp Problems, by Werner Hett;
  • H-99: Ninety-Nine Haskell Problems;

Books

• Scheme books (on-line):
  • HTDP -- How to Design Programs, by Matthias Felleisen, Robert Bruce Findler, Matthew Flatt, and Shriram Krishnamurthi (recommended);
  • SICP -- Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, by Harold Abelson Gerald, and Jay Sussman;
  • An Introduction to Scheme and its Implementation, by Franck Decrock;
• Common Lisp books (on-line):
  • Practical Common Lisp, by Peter Seibel (recommended);
  • Lisp Primer, by Colin Allen, and Maneesh Dhagat;
  • Common Lisp -- A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation, by David Touretzky;
  • Loving Lisp, or the Savvy Programmer's Secret Weapon, by Mark Watson;
  • On Lisp, by Paul Graham;
  • Common Lisp the Language, 2nd Edition, by Guy Steele;

.

References

• Scheme references (on-line):
  • R6RS;
  • R5RS;
  • PLT Scheme;
• Common Lisp references (on-line):
  • Common Lisp Hyperspec;

People

This link is a very good place to start.

On-line (audio / video) media

• webcast.berkeley:
  • Computer Science 61A, 001 -- The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs: Spring 2010, or Fall 2009, or Fall 2008, or Spring 2008;
• InfoQ:
  • The Evolution of Lisp, by Guy Steele and Richard Gabriel;
  • Taming Effects with Functional Programming, by Simon Peyton-Jones;

Miscellaneous links

• schemers.org documents;
• Common Lisp Educational Resources -- Online Tutorials;