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Rating: 
Summary: Simplistic Introductory Text
Review: The Little MLer takes the Socratic method to the extreme. The book is laid out in two columns, basically a question and an answer, and that's it. The authors make light of their subject matter, which can be entertaining, but the format definitely kills its utility as a reference. The one-page index is not very helpful. The book does take a dramatic turn in complexity around page 81, just short of the halfway point (in a book full of white space, mind you), when the truly useful fundamentals of functional programming are finally taken up, so that the reader with prior experience no longer feels coddled. It would make this book so much more useful if the authors included a reference section at the end, perhaps with the definitions of the SML '97 basis library, with which a professional can now do real-world application programming. This is a nice and at times fun introduction to ML that gives the reader a hint as to the true power and complexity of functional programming, but buyers should be aware THIS WILL NOT BE THE ONLY ML BOOK YOU WILL NEED.
Rating:
Summary: Simplistic Introductory Text
Review: The Little MLer takes the Socratic method to the extreme. The book is laid out in two columns, basically a question and an answer, and that's it. The authors make light of their subject matter, which can be entertaining, but the format definitely kills its utility as a reference. The one-page index is not very helpful. The book does take a dramatic turn in complexity around page 81, just short of the halfway point (in a book full of white space, mind you), when the truly useful fundamentals of functional programming are finally taken up, so that the reader with prior experience no longer feels coddled. It would make this book so much more useful if the authors included a reference section at the end, perhaps with the definitions of the SML '97 basis library, with which a professional can now do real-world application programming. This is a nice and at times fun introduction to ML that gives the reader a hint as to the true power and complexity of functional programming, but buyers should be aware THIS WILL NOT BE THE ONLY ML BOOK YOU WILL NEED.
Rating: 
Summary: Dont like
Review: This book treats the reader as a child. Anyone with any programming experience(including VB), would be better suited reading a book about LISP or Scheme.
Rating: 
Summary: marvelous!
Review: This is an excellent little book that will subvert your programming style (for the better) if you read it at all closely. It teaches quite a bit about ML programming (and indeed functional programming in general) in small snippets. Highly recommended for experienced programmers and novices alike.
Rating:
Summary: marvelous!
Review: This is an excellent little book that will subvert your programming style (for the better) if you read it at all closely. It teaches quite a bit about ML programming (and indeed functional programming in general) in small snippets. Highly recommended for experienced programmers and novices alike.
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