I learned haskell, clojure, python, and janet lisp.
I was curious about gnu guix and guile scheme.
I just scanned guile scheme manual, and I freaked out.
It supports R5RS, R6RS, and R7RS.
Guile scheme seems like a chimera of several scheme standards. This is like learning to speak different dialects of english at the same time.
As a result, the manual outsources language education to RnRS documents. I don’t think beginners should learn scheme from RnRS documents? Some native english speakers may want to flex their english muscles by speaking several dialects of english fluently, but I’m just a beginner.
The Systemcrafters course is fantastic. Store still says the last offering was in June, so I’m not sure when the next iteration of that class will be, but keep a look out for it.
Couldn’t agree more. The course on guile scheme was so much more than I expected it to be, absolutely well worth the money. The discussions within the course cohort was also wonderfully instructive.
Almost free is the $7 Kindle version of Mastering Scheme Programming: From Basics to Expert Proficiency. I’m up to Chapter 8, using Guile, and the only hiccup I’ve encountered is in using the read-line function in Chapter 7. In Guile you have to “import” it with (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))", and the book doesn’t cover use-modules. (Using Guile Modules (Guile Reference Manual)) Good Luck.
Is that really a good book? I looked at that author and publisher and it seems very fishy with one guy writing 50+ books on all sorts of topics. This doesn’t sound legit.
He might be paid by page count, because there is undue repetition. But he seems to cover all the topics I felt deficient in (File I/O, especially. I’m still working through it ( hoping for a few interesting examples of practical uses of CSP. (The page count reference does not imply lack of quality-- e.g. Charles Dickens)
I picked up the book after seeing the mention in this thread as it was cheap, and brought it as reading material on a recent flight. The “paid by page count” hypothesis surely makes sense, first four chapters essentially say the same thing over and over. There’s also a fair amount of completely useless fluff (like “knowing how to define variables is crucial to Scheme development”, “knowing how to define procedures is elemental to developing Scheme programs”, “knowing how to…” … I’m sure you get the gist of it).
Some sections suffer from broken formatting, which slows down the read of those sections, but otherwise doesn’t really matter. This unfortunately also applies to every single algorithm entry (they’re supposedly a sidebar or some such, I can’t really tell), where instead of getting a very quick overview of the algorithm design, you’ll need to reconstruct it while ignoring some tokens I don’t know what are there for (they’re digits, so possibly steps, line numbers, or entirely broken footnotes).
On the positive side, it’s cheap and a quick read, and I haven’t found anything that is completely wrong. It has some minor inconsistencies; for example, I don’t think this style of commenting code is particularly useful: (define x 10) ; set x to 10
And, while the author discourages this style in prose, he still does that in the code that exemplifies said prose.
I have a new flight coming up today and I expect to skim through a bit more, and I’m hoping it’ll get a bit more technical and useful. I don’t consider it a waste of money, but so far its value is fairly limited to me. I think what I get the most value from is spending time reading and thinking about Scheme, as I mostly spend time reading and thinking about C++.
I only took a look at the link you provided now. Expanding on my comment about the first 4 chapters, they feel a bit like word salad from an LLM. Given the release date of some of the books I peeked at, I’d say that’s very likely the case. So it might be LLM content that’s hopefully been proofread for accuracy. As I mentioned in my other comment, there hasn’t been too much that I know to be wrong yet, and I believe I’d be able to spot it (also because I validate things in the REPL as I go, and I trust the REPL to get it right).
I just started reading it myself, but I’ve heard that the original version of the Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs is quite good for learning Scheme, and apparently most of it is applicable to the Guile variation. It’s also licensed under CC-SA, so there are a number of places you can find it for free.
A programming book written by an AI and proofread by a human?
Nothing wrong with boosting productivity with AI, but it feels lazy for a programming book.
I don’t mind generative AIs for mass-producing marketing videos for companies. Generative AIs are going to disrupt marketing industry, but AIs are going to remain mediocre for a very very long time.
I do not desire mediocrity in programming books.
AIs are the average of input materials. Most input materials are from most people who are average. The average is mediocre.