update meeting time/place

[lambda.git] / index.mdwn

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 or: **What Philosophers and Linguists Can Learn From Theoretical Computer Science But Didn't Know To Ask**
 
 This course is co-taught by [Chris Barker](http://homepages.nyu.edu/~cb125/) and [Jim Pryor](http://www.jimpryor.net/). Linguistics calls it "G61.3340" and Philosophy calls it "G83.2296"
 or: **What Philosophers and Linguists Can Learn From Theoretical Computer Science But Didn't Know To Ask**
 
 This course is co-taught by [Chris Barker](http://homepages.nyu.edu/~cb125/) and [Jim Pryor](http://www.jimpryor.net/). Linguistics calls it "G61.3340" and Philosophy calls it "G83.2296"

-The seminar meets in spring 2015 on Thursdays from 4-7, in 
-the Linguistics building at 10 Washington Place, in room 104 (back of the first floor).
+The seminar meets in spring 2015 on Thursdays from 4 until a bit before 7 (with a short break in the middle), in 
+the Linguistics building at 10 Washington Place, in room 103 (front of the first floor).

 
 <!--
 One student session will be held every Wednesday from 3-4 on the
 
 <!--
 One student session will be held every Wednesday from 3-4 on the


@@ -14,6 +14,12 @@ fourth floor at 10 Washington Place.
 
 ## Announcements ##
 
 
 ## Announcements ##
 

+This wiki will be undergoing lots of changes throughout the semester, and particularly in these first few days as we get it set up, migrate over some of the content from the previous time
+we taught this course, and iron out various technical wrinkles. Please be patient.
+
+If you've eager to learn, though, you don't have to wait on us to be ready to serve you. You can go look at the [archived first version](http://lambda1.jimpryor.net) of this course. Just keep in mind that
+the text and links there haven't been updated.
+

 
 ## Course Overview ##
 
 
 ## Course Overview ##
 


@@ -163,23 +169,14 @@ Read more about the [uptake of Haskell](http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2010/12/
 
 ## Recommended Books ##
 
 
 ## Recommended Books ##
 

-It's not necessary to purchase these for the class. But they are good ways to get a more thorough and solid understanding of some of the more basic conceptual tools we'll be using.
+It's not *mandatory* to purchase these for the class. But they are good ways to get a more thorough and solid understanding of some of the more basic conceptual tools we'll be using. We especially recommend the first three of them.

 
 *      *An Introduction to Lambda Calculi for Computer Scientists*, by Chris
 
 *      *An Introduction to Lambda Calculi for Computer Scientists*, by Chris

-Hankin, currently $17 on
+Hankin, currently $18 paperback on

 [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0954300653).
 
 [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0954300653).
 

-*      (Another good book covering the same ground as the Hankin book, but
-more thoroughly, and in a more mathematical style, is *Lambda-Calculus and Combinators:
-an Introduction*, by J. Roger Hindley and Jonathan P. Seldin, currently $52 on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0521898854). If you choose to read
-both the Hankin book and this book, you'll notice the authors made some different
-terminological/notational choices. At first, this makes comprehension slightly slower,
-but in the long run it's helpful because it makes the arbitrariness of those choices more salient.)
-
-*      (Another good book, covering some of the same ground as the previous two, but also delving much deeper into typed lambda calculi, is *Types and Programming Languages*, by Benjamin Pierce, currently $61 on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0262162091). This book has many examples in OCaml.)
-

 *   *The Little Schemer, Fourth Edition*, by Daniel P. Friedman and Matthias
 *   *The Little Schemer, Fourth Edition*, by Daniel P. Friedman and Matthias

-Felleisen, currently $23 on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262560992).
+Felleisen, currently $29 paperback on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262560992).

 This is a classic text introducing the gentle art of programming, using the
 functional programming language Scheme. Many people love this book, but it has
 an unusual dialog format that is not to everybody's taste. **Of particular
 This is a classic text introducing the gentle art of programming, using the
 functional programming language Scheme. Many people love this book, but it has
 an unusual dialog format that is not to everybody's taste. **Of particular


@@ -187,15 +184,25 @@ interest for this course** is the explanation of the Y combinator, available as
 a free sample chapter [at the MIT Press web page for the
 book](http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/BTLS/).
 
 a free sample chapter [at the MIT Press web page for the
 book](http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/BTLS/).
 

-*      *The Seasoned Schemer*, also by Daniel P. Friedman and Matthias Felleisen, currently $28
-on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/Seasoned-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/026256100X)
+*      *The Seasoned Schemer*, also by Daniel P. Friedman and Matthias Felleisen, currently $29 paperback
+on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/Seasoned-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/026256100X). This is a sequel to The Little Schemer, and it focuses on mutation and continuations in Scheme. We will be covering those topics in the second half of the course.

 
 

-*      *The Little MLer*, by Matthias Felleisen and Daniel P. Friedman, currently $27
+*      *The Little MLer*, by Matthias Felleisen and Daniel P. Friedman, currently $31 paperback / $29 kindle

 on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/Little-MLer-Matthias-Felleisen/dp/026256114X).
 on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/Little-MLer-Matthias-Felleisen/dp/026256114X).

-This covers some of the same introductory ground as The Little Schemer, but
-this time in ML. It uses another dialect of ML (called SML), instead of OCaml, but there are only
-superficial syntactic differences between these languages. [Here's a translation
-manual between them](http://www.mpi-sws.org/~rossberg/sml-vs-ocaml.html).
+This covers much of the same introductory ground as The Little Schemer, but
+this time in a dialect of ML. It doesn't use OCaml, the dialect we'll be working with, but instead another dialect of ML called SML. The syntactic differences between these languages is slight.
+([Here's a translation manual between them](http://www.mpi-sws.org/~rossberg/sml-vs-ocaml.html).)
+Still, that does add an extra layer of interpretation, and you might as well just use The Little Schemer instead. Those of you who are already more comfortable with OCaml (or with Haskell) than with Scheme might consider working through this book instead of The Little Schemer; for the rest of you, or those of you who *want* practice with Scheme, go with The Little Schemer.
+
+*      Another good book covering the same ground as the Hankin book, but
+more thoroughly, and in a more mathematical style, is *Lambda-Calculus and Combinators:
+an Introduction*, by J. Roger Hindley and Jonathan P. Seldin, currently $74 hardback / $65 kindle on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0521898854).
+This book is substantial and though it doesn't presuppose any specific mathematical background knowledge, it will be a good choice only if you're already comfortable reading advanced math textbooks.
+If you choose to read both the Hankin book and this book, you'll notice the authors made some different
+terminological/notational choices. At first, this makes comprehension slightly slower,
+but in the long run it's helpful because it makes the arbitrariness of those choices more salient.
+
+*      Another good book, covering some of the same ground as the Hankin, and the Hindley &amp; Seldin, but delving deeper into typed lambda calculi, is *Types and Programming Languages*, by Benjamin Pierce, currently $77 hardback / $68 kindle on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0262162091). This book has many examples in OCaml.

 
 
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