Product Description
Praise for the first edition

". . . a genuinely terrific introduction to programming and computerscience." -- Login

"The authors have written a very user-friendly book. The sentences andthe programs are short; the explanations are step-by-step." --Choice

This lively introduction to computer science and computer programming inScheme is for non-computer science majors with a strong interest in thesubject and for computer science majors who lack prior programmingexperience. The text allows the student to experience the computer as atool for expressing ideas, not as a frustrating set of mathematicalobstacles. This goal is supported by the use of Scheme, a modern dialectof Lisp, designed to emphasize symbolic programming.Amazon.com Review
For anyone learning the Scheme programming language, thesecond edition of Simply Scheme: Introducing Computer Scienceprovides a very digestible textbook-style introductory tutorial tothis powerful and elegant language.

In the words of the authors,Simply Scheme is designed to be a "prequel" to another book,Structure andInterpretation of Computer Programs. This latter title hasbeen a staple of introductory computer science courses for years, butit assumes a certain background.

Simply Scheme works hardto make the somewhat tricky ideas of Scheme accessible. This tutorialstresses small sections on key language features, from basicfunctions, variables, and onward to recursion and other functionalprogramming concepts. While languages like C++ and Java use objects tomodel data, Scheme programmers break a problem down intofunctions. The art--and elegance--of problem solving in Scheme comesfrom applying recursion and other design concepts.

Longer codesamples in the book include a tic-tac-toe game, examples that workwith poker and bridge, and a working spreadsheet demo. Throughout, thebook employs a friendly and jargon-free approach to programming. Thisbook is as much about thinking like Scheme as it is about thebasic nuts and bolts of the language. Sections on using softwarepatterns in Scheme help bring this new edition up to date.

Thoughnot often used in business, Scheme and its cousin Common Lisp (whichthe book describes in an appendix) are still favored by computerscientists, for example, in artificial intelligenceresearch. Simple Scheme succeeds in making a difficultprogramming language both approachable and accessible. It's a valuableresource to any computer science student who is taking Scheme on forthe first time. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:Scheme language fundamentals, functions and higher-order functions,variables, lambda basics, recursion, abstraction, software patterns inScheme, lists, trees, sequential programming, working with files,vectors, Common Lisp. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Basic CS book
This is a very basic, but very important book for an introductory course in computer science based on Scheme. If you are trying to learn the basics of the Scheme language, this book is for you.

A good conceptual extender
I have been programming for many years in languages such as Assembler,C, C++ and Python. I found I had not many difficulties with getting the concepts of Assembler and C, but concerning C++ and Python there were many things in these languges which I was not able to use effectively, since I did not understand the concepts. That is where Simply Scheme is such a great book. It explains quickly and easily ideas such as recursion, vectors, trees and general symbolic programming. It also helps with terminology, giving names to things I had been doing for years, but had not defined.

I would suggest this book as a great step to those who can doing many things in lower level languages, but want to extend their effeciency. I do not think I would ever use the Scheme language as such, but I will certainly use what I have learned in this book for my programming.

Weak
The extra star is for the excessive effort these guys had to put in for what they did. It was not very effective. The biggest problem of this book is that it's full of confusing explanations the designers hoped would be "heuristic." This problem permeates the work from start to finish. The use of the special commands by the authors, not part of standard scheme, makes very little sense in most classroom settings that teach Scheme in the hopes of teaching functional programming. The whole idea of functional programming is that you have a bare group of essential concepts AND commands, and work your way from there. I had the great misfortune of taking a class where we weren't allowed to use the specially designed scheme commands for this book, but still had to buy it. If you are in that predicament, the book is completely worthless. Furthermore, while I admire the author's desire to prepare people for SICP, their treatment of this task borders on arrogance. At one point they actually suggest that "SICP was designed for MIT students" and that the rest of us aren't worthy of it yet. Quite frankly for anybody willing to take the time, SICP is not as terrifying as these guys make it out to be. This is a weak book.

An interesting read
Scheme itself is a terse declarative programming language with few (more likely zero) industrial uses. However the important and fundamental concepts in computer science are well demonstrated by the authors here. The book does serve fairly well as preparation for SICP but if that is the books purpose then the authors may as use raw mathematical predicates which is alot easier to read than Scheme code. The library code provided by the authors is vital for doing the exercises and coding

without these is not considered making the book a weak reference manual. The book is also too long for a single semester course which means you may as well undertake Knuth's volumes if you are in a long course.

Simpy Scheme
I read this book in preparation for a computer science cource (taught byone of it's authors). I chose the book because the course was taught inScheme, and I had not encountered the language before. I must say that thisis an excellent book. While it may use some non-standard extensions to thelanguage, in general, it does a good job of teaching Scheme. I feel thatafter I read the book, I was thorougly prepared to read SICP, the main textin my comp sci course. The non-technical and sometimes humorous style madeSimply Scheme an easy reading, and allowed me to concentrate on theconcepts rather than the jargon. ... Read more

Product Description
Welcome to the exciting world of game programming! If you’re already familiar with the C++ programming language and want to learn how to program games, this book is for you. Game Programming in C++: Start to Finish will help you learn how to turn your own game fantasies into playable realities!

Over the course of the book, you’ll learn the popular techniques and practices behind today’s games. Not only will you add a lot of theory to your game programming toolkit, but you’ll also create a small basic game from scratch – SuperAsteriodArena. While you’ll focus on using the SDL and the OpenGL libraries to learn game programming, you’ll also learn the essential Windows principles that you’ll need to create just about any kind of game with any other API such as DirectX.

This easy-to-follow book takes current game programming information and filters it down to a practical level. Each chapter and subsection builds upon previous chapters and topics in a tutorial format, allowing you to progress at your own pace. As you work through the book, you’ll build the SuperAsteriodArena game, beginning with engine creation and 3D programming with SDL and OpenGL. From there you’ll move on to animation effects, audio, collision detection, networking, and finalizing the game. A variety of tools are used throughout, including Visual Studio and OpenGL, SDL, Autodesk 3ds Max, and the Audacity sound tool.

Features:* Teaches C++ game programming in an easy-to-follow style* Uses the creation of a complete game – SuperAsteriodArena- to teach the entire game development process from concept and design document to finalizing the game* Explains important Windows programming techniques that can apply to any projectUses a variety of popular tools – Visual Studio, SDL, OpenGL, CVS, gDEBugger, Autodesk 3ds Max, and the Audacity sound tool* Includes a CD-ROM with libraries and tools, including the SDL libraries, trial versions of Audacity, 3ds Max 7, gDEBugger, InnoSetup, CVSNT, doxygen, the source code from the book, and the complete game from the book

On the CD!* Demos: gDEBugger (Graphic Remedy) – Tools for finding and isolating problems with OpenGL commands; MoleBox Pro (MoleBox) – Utility for compressing game assets; Autodesk 3ds Max 7 demo

* Tools: SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer); CEGUI (Crazy Eddie’s GUI System); Lua (The Lua Interpreter); OpenAL (The Open Audio Library); PreplicaNet; Tokaak (The Tokamak Physics Library); Audacity; BitmapFontBuilder; CVSNT; Doxygen; InnoSetup

* Game Files and Source code

System Requirements: A PC running Windows NT4.0/95/98/2000 or XP. To compile the source code you will need a PC capable of compiling C++ modules. The sample projects included are compatible with either Visual Studio 6.0 SP6 or Visual Studio .NET 2003 (other compilers are an option but are untested at this time. To run the sample game, you will need any version of Windows (newer than NT4.0) with at least 1 GHz CPU and a minimum of 256MB of RAM. You will need a 3D accelerated video card with at least 32MB of onboard VRAM and the latest drivers from your vendor. For Visual Studio 2005 code, visit the book’s Web page. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Terrible
This book is all over the place and is hard to follow. The author mixes various subjects with no obvious focus and throws code listings at you that you don't know where to place.

Probably the worst programming book I own.

Frustration
I saw the Thomson logo at the top left on the front cover and thought it was textbook quality.I was dead wrong!!As the engineer said, the directions are incoherent and you don't even know when he has given instructions or just an example.I had to search the web for help answers just to do the "Hello World" application.There is no troubleshooting guide in case you get stuck.If you get stuck you better clear up your schedule cause you will be searching for answers for a while.Why not spend that time and buy a good book on programming.I would expect more from a programmer than this garbled mess of words.

designing games
This programming book was just what my son was wanting.He thinks it will really help refine his gaming progams.

Made me Dizzy
It's ironic that a programmer would be so terrible at giving directions. To start out with, the directions for setting up SDL (a necessary programming toolkit) were almost non-existant. Just this small task took me 8+ hours, and I had to resort to browsing web-forums!

Often the directions were so terrible that it wasn't even clear whether or not he'd just given directions for a procedure or was just providing an example. As a programmer, the author should be able to give sequential, succinct, and easily-followable directions. At this,the author, unfortunately, fails miserably.

Avoid This Book
I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who is trying to start out in game programming.I am a grad student engineer and have been programming for over 5 years.I just recently got into game and graphics programming and this book is really terrible compared to some others I've seen.The only reason I gave it two stars is because the chapter on graphics mathematics is fairly complete, and the book provides a good high level picture of how a game is structured.However, the code specifics are downright horrible, the listings seem to be randomly thrown in without any clue as to where they should go in an actual program, the writing is boring, the directions are sparse and inchoerent, and much of the source code provided on the CD is incredibly difficult to get running (if it runs at all).Also, there is a discussion board on wazoo, but don't excpect much help.Many of the forums end with unanswered questions including many that I had.For an intro book to programming games, save your money for another book, because this book just isn't worth the cost in wasted time and money. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from IIE Transactions, published by Institute of Industrial Engineers, Inc. (IIE) on October 1, 1996. The length of the article is 5653 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: A new tolerance representation scheme based on a hybrid CSG/B-Rep hierarchy is proposed. By using the object-oriented programming (OOP) concept, the specifications of each part, such as tolerances, functional requirements, cost functions, and machining processes, have been treated as classes with their own attributes. The inheritance, which serves as the major linking mechanism between databases in the OOP world, has been fully exploited to make the tolerance representation scheme efficient and robust. The representations of five types of tolerances (form, orientation, profile, runout, and location tolerance), as specified in ANSI Y14.5M - 1982, are discussed and presented. A prototype of the proposed tolerance representation scheme has been successfully implemented in the Wisdom's Concept Modeller.

Citation Details
Title: Tolerance representation scheme for a three-dimensional product in an object-oriented programming environment.
Author: Utpal Roy
Publication: IIE Transactions (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 1996
Publisher: Institute of Industrial Engineers, Inc. (IIE)
Volume: v28Issue: n10Page: p809(11)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more