Programming Languages: Application and Interpretation, 3rd Ed
plai.org
plai.org
From the preface;
> I have also written this book with working programmers in mind. Many of them may have not had a formal computer science education, or at least one that included a proper introduction to programming languages. At some point, like that 90% of students, some of them become curious about the media they use. I want this book to speak to them, gently drawing them away from the hustle and bustle of daily programming into a space of reflection and thought. - Shriram Krishnamurthi, Brown University
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esoteric_programming_languag...
[0](https://www.pyret.org/) [1](https://www.dcic-world.org/)
PLAI (this book) teaches you how languages work. It also tells you a bit about how to structure systems, but that is not its goal. In part that is not a goal because of the existence of books like SICP and, increasingly, DCIC [https://dcic-world.org/].
Everything you do in software is in service of moving and munging of data, programming paradigms are tools secondary to that.
Also it is some how pedagogically really nice, very approachable and readable.
30 seconds into opening the textbook and I already like it.
Sorry side track totally. as part of my degree is under a Chicago School professor, who I respect but still his work find puzzling. Can this be a counter-example … just like many others open source project. The problem of public good i.e. those unlike fish cannot be eaten. He went on to do work on trademark, copyright and patent. Well copyright is what open source rely upon he would say. But what is the incentive of doing it. Would the total output less because of this … he would ask.
The question as normal here: why not say sell it and give the money to something you like, like charity.
why not say sell it and give the money to something you like, like charity.
If you, a person who knows something, want to achieve a public good in educating others on that thing, then the most efficient way of achieving that is just spreading the knowledge yourself. If you sold your knowledge in a book, and then used the money to pay someone else to write a book teaching the same thing, and then distributed that for free, you can only have lost efficiency.
It's like asking "Why should I pay for college instead of working to make money to pay someone else to go to college and then teach that information to me": It's absurd, because it introduces entirely unnecessary transactions.
Anyway, if that is what you meant to ask: Well, I'm the author, so my answer may have some substance (-:.
I have a good job and it pays me to have impact. I can have much more impact by giving away the book to people interested in learning. [º]
[º] This is not 100% true. Over the years, people have told me they value a book more if it costs something. I am not looking to please them.
In particular, I grew up in India and we could not afford fancy (but great) Western textbooks. If there's a student like me right now (whether in India or Indiana) who wants to learn from my book but for whom its cost is an obstacle, that would make me very sad. That's why all the books I have (co-)authored have been available for free.
On the first edition's site [https://cs.brown.edu/~sk/Publications/Books/ProgLangs/2007-0...] you can see the different models by which I have made the book available. They have netted me some modest revenue. But there's always a free option.
The last programming language book I bought the author got two sales because Amazon didn’t follow the delivery notes where I specifically said don’t leave it on the porch or it will get stolen and one of my sketchy neighbors got a free copy. Almost got a third sale as well but I happened to be home and tracking the delivery driver so managed to get it off my porch before the neighbors saw it.
Giving away the book is a charitable donation to the entire software industry. That is giving his money away to something he likes.