On 07/16/2012 11:03 PM, Pascal Chatterjee wrote:
The trickiest thing I've found so far is that, for simplicity, I've
explained def as a function that takes a symbol and a value as
arguments. I've then gone on to say that arguments to a function are
evaluated before the function itself executes, which is true in general
of course but not for special forms, like def.
I don't really want to get into special forms vs functions right in the
first chapter so for now I've just glossed over it and hoped no-one will
notice :)
Do you guys have any ideas on other ways to tackle it?
I think you should not explain def as a function, as that is not a
helpful simplification but rather just misleading.
You could just explain how it behaves without mentioning special forms
vs functions.
Or you have to keep special forms out of the first chapter. This made me
wonder; The Little Schemer starts with atoms, lists, s-expressions and I
think the first mention of define is on page 16.
--
Thorsten Wilms
thorwil's design for free software:
http://thorwil.wordpress.com/
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