[racket] Offtopic: Favorite resources for mastering SML?

[Grant Rettke]

Hi,

One of my current projects is to master as functional and statically
typed programming language. Having discussed and debated it years ago
(partially on list here, too) the conclusion was reached that SML
would be a nicer place to start than Haskell or Clean. Fifteen years
after its release, there seems to be a lot of knowledge but not a ton
of resources exactly. There are a lot of dead links and books out of
print (working off the SML/NJ resource list). I'm wondering of ACM's
digital library is a good place to start.

Last week I worked through _ML for the Working Programmers_ which was
great but didn't get into the details in a way that I would have
expected (went from 10mph to 100mph instead). Up next is _The Little
MLer_ and Harpers _Programming in Standard ML_.

This list's members have a breadth and depth far beyond most, so I'm
wondering if I could get your help here and learn about your favorite
learning SML resources.

Best wishes,

--
Grant Rettke | ACM, AMA, COG, IEEE
gre...@acm.org | http://www.wisdomandwonder.com/
“Wisdom begins in wonder.” --Socrates
((λ (x) (x x)) (λ (x) (x x)))
“Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop
taking it seriously.” --Thompson

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[Matthias Felleisen]

You should have skipped SML for Working Programmers.

The Little MLer is an introduction to the idea of typed
programming not an introduction to SML. But at least it
avoids the basic mistakes of 'Working'.

Harper's book is definitive. Once you're thru, you are
done.

Start over with OCaml then. It's maintained, has a large
user community, and a ton of resources. The switch won't
be difficult.

[Geoffrey S. Knauth]

There's a new OCaml book out:

http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920024743.do

Real World OCaml

Functional programming for the masses

By Jason Hickey, Anil Madhavapeddy, Yaron Minsky

Publisher: O'Reilly Media

Released: June 2013

Pages: 450

Geoff

[Phil Bewig]

Sorry, I meant this for the list, not just Grant.

After I wrote it, I looked again at my bookshelf and found Elements of Functional Programming by Chris Reade, which reminds me in a small way of SICP. It belongs in the intermediate/advanced category.

On Thu, Jul 4, 2013 at 10:04 AM, Phil Bewig <pbe...@gmail.com> wrote:

Jeff Ullman's book Elements of ML Programming got me started on both SML and functional languages in general. I still remember the feeling I had about halfway through the book: this is the way programming should be done. Harper's book Programming in Standard ML is equally good (Did he ever finish it?).

For beginners, Ryan Stansifer's ML Primer and Ake Wikstrom's Functional Programming Using Standard ML are both quite basic. You can read Stansifer in an evening; there's not much there. Wikstrom is a good introduction to the language.

For intermediate programmers, Programming with Standard ML by Colin Myers, Chris Clack and Ellen Poon is good. Rachel Harrison's book Abstract Data Types in Standard ML is poorly written, but some of the code is good.

For advanced programmers, Larry Paulson's book ML for the Working Programmer is excellent, as you noted; I don't know what Matthias objects to. So is Chris Okasaki's book Purely Functional Data Structures. S. Sokolowski's book Applicative High Order Programming gives a very mathematical treatment.

There's lots of conference proceedings if you go looking for them. And of course you will want to read both the Standard and the Commentary.

[Matthias Felleisen]

On Jul 4, 2013, at 11:13 AM, Phil Bewig wrote:

Sorry, I meant this for the list, not just Grant.

After I wrote it, I looked again at my bookshelf and found Elements of Functional Programming by Chris Reade, which reminds me in a small way of SICP. It belongs in the intermediate/advanced category.

On Thu, Jul 4, 2013 at 10:04 AM, Phil Bewig <pbe...@gmail.com> wrote:

Jeff Ullman's book Elements of ML Programming got me started on both SML and functional languages in general. I still remember the feeling I had about halfway through the book: this is the way programming should be done. 

Strange. All i recall are fundamental mistakes in presenting ML. For example, let is presented as a temporary assignment to a variable. ARGH! 

For beginners, Ryan Stansifer's ML Primer and Ake Wikstrom's Functional Programming Using Standard ML are both quite basic. You can read Stansifer in an evening; there's not much there. Wikstrom is a good introduction to the language.

Agreed. 

For intermediate programmers, Programming with Standard ML by Colin Myers, Chris Clack and Ellen Poon is good. Rachel Harrison's book Abstract Data Types in Standard ML is poorly written, but some of the code is good.

For advanced programmers, Larry Paulson's book ML for the Working Programmer is excellent, as you noted; I don't know what Matthias objects to.

I think Harper's perspective on ML is vastly superior to Paulson's who comes from a TP background and if I have a certain budget of reading minutes I go to the place(s) that matter. 

So is Chris Okasaki's book Purely Functional Data Structures. 

Worth reading when you have programmed in ML for a year and want to understand how to get rid of assignments. 

[Sean Kanaley]

I can't speak to ML vs. Haskell starter-friendliness but I can provide a
link to a free online Haskell book:

http://book.realworldhaskell.org/read/

It's the Haskell equivalent of "Practical Common Lisp".

If you end up liking Haskell, the book Haskell School of Expression is
very good. It takes you through the construction of DSLs for functional
reactive programming (FRP), an imperative language to control robots
(simulated on screen with simple graphics), and one to describe music in
the abstract and then convert it to a MIDI file. It's more heavily math
based, often asking for proofs as exercises, but if that's not what you
like it's not really necessary to do them anyway.

Note that I'm not attempting to persuade you from ML and the
recommendations already given, merely sharing what I personally know
better...though I will say that the Haskell type system to include its
classes, families, functional dependencies, transformers, GADTs, etc. is
probably the best one in existence, or at least in common use...

On 07/04/2013 10:36 AM, Grant Rettke wrote:
> Hi,
>
> One of my current projects is to master as functional and statically
> typed programming language. Having discussed and debated it years ago
> (partially on list here, too) the conclusion was reached that SML
> would be a nicer place to start than Haskell or Clean. Fifteen years
> after its release, there seems to be a lot of knowledge but not a ton
> of resources exactly. There are a lot of dead links and books out of
> print (working off the SML/NJ resource list). I'm wondering of ACM's
> digital library is a good place to start.
>
> Last week I worked through _ML for the Working Programmers_ which was
> great but didn't get into the details in a way that I would have
> expected (went from 10mph to 100mph instead). Up next is _The Little
> MLer_ and Harpers _Programming in Standard ML_.
>
> This list's members have a breadth and depth far beyond most, so I'm
> wondering if I could get your help here and learn about your favorite
> learning SML resources.
>
> Best wishes,
>

[Todd O'Bryan]

I have to put in a plug for Learn You a Haskell for Great Good. It's
quite entertaining and several of my high school students have managed
to work their way through most of it.

http://www.learnyouahaskell.com

Todd

[Stephan Houben]

If you want to go hardcore, you could consider

The Definition of Standard ML - Revised

Robin Milner (Author), Robert Harper (Author), David MacQueen(Author), Mads Tofte (Author)

Nice book, a bit dense though.

Stephan

Op donderdag 4 juli 2013 schreef Todd O'Bryan (toddo...@gmail.com) het volgende:

[natxo cabre]

I'm also interested in knowing your recommendation about which language is better for starters: SML or Haskell? and why?

2013/7/4 Stephan Houben <steph...@gmail.com>

[Matthias Felleisen]

BSL ISL then ASL. From there, jump to Racket and Typed Racket. 

If you must, flip a coin and learn yourself OCaml or Haskell or F#. 

[natxo cabre]

Thanks Matthias,

I'm actually reading the "realm of racket" book and I'm really enjoying it. So, I was thinking what's the next step: probably I will start with Typed Racket as you suggested.

 

2013/7/5 Matthias Felleisen <matt...@ccs.neu.edu>

[Nick Payne]

On 05/07/13 22:04, Matthias Felleisen wrote:
>
> BSL ISL then ASL. From there, jump to Racket and Typed Racket.
>

Is deafness a prerequisite?

BSL == British sign language
ISL == Gestuno
ASL == American sign language

[Mark Engelberg]

While we're on the topic of exploring from Racket to alternative languages, what's the friendliest way to dip into Prolog coming from a Racket background?

[Richard Lawrence]

Mark Engelberg <mark.en...@gmail.com>
writes:

> While we're on the topic of exploring from Racket to alternative languages,
> what's the friendliest way to dip into Prolog coming from a Racket
> background?

Well, there's the Racklog module:

http://docs.racket-lang.org/racklog/

There's also the Datalog language:

http://docs.racket-lang.org/datalog/

I have played around with Racklog a bit, and found it a nice way to try
out Prolog-style programming with easy fallback to Racket when desired.
But I'm a Prolog newbie myself, so I don't have any reading materials to
recommend, besides the Racklog docs.

HTH,
Richard

[Dan Andersson]

Prolog proper or declarative logic programming? For the second I'd say miniKanren and 'The Reasoned Schemer'.

On Sat, Jul 6, 2013 at 7:13 AM, Mark Engelberg <mark.en...@gmail.com> wrote:

While we're on the topic of exploring from Racket to alternative languages, what's the friendliest way to dip into Prolog coming from a Racket background?

[Jay McCarthy]

If you look at the papers referenced in the Datalog documentation, you
can get a good start on the theory of Datalog and some things related
to it.

Jay

--
Jay McCarthy <j...@cs.byu.edu>
Assistant Professor / Brigham Young University
http://faculty.cs.byu.edu/~jay

"The glory of God is Intelligence" - D&C 93

[claire alvis]

If you're interested in Rackety logic programming languages in general, you could take a look at miniKanren's Racket port and beginner's resources at http://minikanren.org

Claire