Book Description
Completely revised and updated, the third edition of Principles of Programming Languages: Design, Evaluation, and Implementation teaches key design and implementation skills essential for language designers, compiler writers, and other computer scientists. It also covers descriptive tools and historical precedents so that students can understand design issues in their historical context. Ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in programming languages and comparative languages, this text uses a unique horizontal organization that analyzes individual languages in their entirety, facilitating discussion of the interrelationships between the parts of a language. It teaches design skills by emphasizing basic principles more than details, focuses on methods of implementation over specific techniques, and presents concepts inductively. In-depth case studies of representative languages from five generations of programming language design (Fortran, Algol-60, Pascal, Ada, LISP, Smalltalk, and Prolog) are used to illustrate larger themes.This third edition adds discussions of the phenomenology of programming languages, the role of conceptual models in language design, language size and complexity, and system implementation languages (with an emphasis on C). It covers programming environments (as illustrated by the Interlisp system) and recent developments in object-oriented programming (including C++, Ada 95, CLOS, and Java), and expands the discussion of multiple inheritance. Historical information has been updated to reflect new developments in the industry and many new exercises have been added as well. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Still an excellent treatment of the Principles behind programming languages.
Today I needed to recommend a book that would treat the ideas and concepts behind good programming.I remembered in college that I had taken a languages course, I looked on my bookshelf, and found this text.I started to re-read it, and found that the ideas and concepts that are covered in this book are still relevant and well treated for today's computing landscape.I only have the 2nd edition so it does not have a treatment of C or C++, but the ideas that it conveyes are still the most important aspect of learning about computer languages.A language you know does not help you with designing good code, however concepts of computer languages will help you no matter what language you code.Inside the cover flap reads a list of principles that are covered throughout the book in each section.Some of them are:Abstraction, Automation, Infomation hiding, Orthogonality, Portability, etc.I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted to learn how to *design* quality software from the ground up.This book will not teach you a language, this book will teach you how to design good code.

Very out of date.
This book reads like it was written in 1990 and the author never bothered to do any further research. It makes some good points, but it should not be a first choice for a survey of the state of the art with regard tofunctional, OO, and logic programming. ... Read more

Book Description
Most current programming language text that provides a balanced mix of explanation and experimentation. Opening chapters present the fundamental principals of programming languages, while optional companion chapters provide implementation-based, hands-on experience that delves even deeper.This edition also includes a greatly expanded treatment of the four major programming paradigms, incorporating a number of the most current languages such as Perl and Python. Special topics presented include event-handling, concurrency, and an all-new chapter on correctness. Overall, this edition provides both broad and deep coverage of language design principles and the major paradigms, allowing users the flexibility of choosing what topics to emphasize. ... Read more

Book Description
Get a better grade in General Chemistry!

Even though General Chemistry may be challenging at times; with hard work and the right study tools, you can still get the grade you want. With David Klein's General Chemistry as a Second Language, you'll be able to better understand fundamental principles of chemistry, solve problems, and focus on what you need to know to succeed.

Here's how you can get a better grade in General Chemistry:

• Understand the basic concepts: General Chemistry as a Second Language focuses on selected topics in General Chemistry to give you a solid foundation. By understanding these principles, you'll have a coherent framework that will help you better understand your course.
• Study more efficiently and effectively: General Chemistry as a Second Language provides time-saving study tips and problem-solving strategies that will help you succeed in the course.
• Improve your problem-solving skills: General Chemistry as a Second Language will help you develop the skills you need to solve a variety of problem types - even unfamiliar ones! ... Read more

  Customer Reviews (7)

  General Chemisty as a second language
  This book shows most of the principles you'll find in your Gen CHEM I course and helps to explain their relevancy to the GEN CHEM I course. Stongly suggest outlining this guide in accordance to whatever text book you'll be using in your course so you wont be studying non-relevant items. Overall this book will help you by giving you a second perspective as to what you are studying.
  Would I buy it again?No, my text book was pretty thorough without it.I gave it to a friend that loves it.

  Outstanding explainations and worked problems.
  This is a wonderful introduction to Organic Chemistry. Klein explains things in a way that can be understood quickly and offers many problems with the solutions available. GREAT!
  
  The reason it gets only 4 stars is after Section 8.8, there are lots and lots of pages (basically blank) with instructions to look in your text book and fill these in. Or to fill them in with notes from class.

  very helpful
  This book was very helpful in explaining Gen Chem 1.This guy has a way of making chemistry understandable.I was having a hard time grasping the concepts.With the help of this book I was finally able to understand.I recommend this book to people who are having problems understanding key concepts. I only wish there was one for Gen Chem 2.

  You need this book!
  This book helped me get an A in Chem I.Period.Sure, my text was better than most and my professor was MUCH better than most...but every text will have shortcomings.And most professors aren't that helpful.Let's face it - most don't even care.So, THANK YOU David Klein for lending your expertise to those future professionals who would suffer through Chem I unnecessarily without your help.Do yourself a favor & invest the $20 or so that this book will cost you.Warning:Though you will probably still have to put in about 5-8 hours a week studying for this class, this book will make it worth your while...instead of just sitting there, blankly staring at diagrams, your time will be well (and properly) spent.

  Great Help
  This book was a great help for me. It is written in completely unassuming language, and does a great job of explaining the concepts. Gives examples very much like what I saw in my textbook. Definitely worth buying! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Epic poetic narrative
Neruda's Canto General is a poetic retelling of the history of South and Central America from the late pre-Columbian era to the middle of the twentieth century.The book is set up like a novel, with chapters and subheadings, a straight-line narration, and a cast of characters.Neruda's communist ideology is visible throughout the work and is a major theme.Canto General leaves the reader with an interesting impression of American history seen through the eyes of the impoversihed people of South America, as well as an idea of how third-world communists perceive reality.This is truly an excellent work, and should be read by everyone.

Truly the American Bible.
This is one of Neruda's greatest books. It is a jorney through the history of the American Continent, from its creation, to its conquest until the present day. Most readers will know it from its chapter 'Hights of Machu Picchu' but it is certainly more than that.

It is a review of 500 hundred years of history, of war, of love, of betray. Obviously the book is a reflection of Neruda's left wing inclination, but that only adds to the book.

In Chile and other parts of Latin America this book is called "The American Bible" and it truly is. Along with Residencia en la Tierra, it is probably Neruda's finest. And is probably the book in which Neruda became what he though his role as a poet ought to be "a voice for all who had no voice". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A So-So learning experience
I have studied Pilipino before and would saY HONESTLY THATTHIS BOOK IS MARGINAL BECAUSE IT USES SEMANTIC AND GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES THAT DO NOT INCORPORATE THE TRUE ESSENCE OF THE TAGALOG USED IN THE PHILIPPINES AS I LEARNED AND USED WHEN I LIVED IN MANILA. In any case, it is a marginal usage of Tagalog and I would not buy this book if I were serious about learning Tagalog for anything other than getting in and out of manila International Airport....if that...if at all.

Excellent Phrase book
This is an excellent phrase book to use for travelers and anyone interested in learning this interesting language. It has very good phonetic spellings and easy-to-read layouts of pages.

I highly recommend this book as a must-have companion to additional study materials.

Bad product
I have found many mispellings and grammatical errors in both english and tagalog in this book. It is inaccurate and inadequate. I would strongly recommend the hippocrene standard dictionary: tagalog-english over this book. I do not recommend this book to anyone.

Suits its purpose
This is more like a handbook of useful phrases. For a beginner this is a great start. It by no means will teach you tagalog but you will be able to understand and use common speech. Good entry level book.

Good phrase book.
I thought this book was great for simple phrases, easy to follow, very easy and helpful to use. Great first step in to learning Tagalog basics. ... Read more

Book Description
From the Most Respected Names in Travel AND Language Instruction
In every travel situation, from arrival to departure, Fodor's Italian for Travelers makes it easy to speak and understand Italian, even if you've never studied it before. And it's backed by Fodor's, the most trusted name in travel, and by Living Language, publisher of best-selling language courses for more than a half century. Packed with 3,800 essential words and phrases. Fodor's Italian for Travelers enables you to speak Italian right away plus accurate, easy-to-read phonetics help you speak like a native. Words and phrases are grouped by topic so you're able to find what you need quickly, plus Fodor's on-the-spot correspondents share their know-how throughout the book. Plus maps; Grammar summary; Conversion charts; and Tipping basics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Great little helper!
I used this book extensively when I spent three months in Sicily.It's small enough to carry everywhere, easy to read and understand.It was helpful to me on many occasions.I highly recommend it.

Good, this aged version slightly outdated
Used this book extensively during 2 week sojourn in Italy.Very helpful, but as this edition was several years old, some vocabulary (particularly internet, phone) out of date.Other than that content was excellent, well organized and easily usable.Good Italian to English and vice versa dictionary in back of book.Would recommend getting same book in more recent publication if availble.

Not for the beginner.
This book is not for someone who just wants to pick up enough Italian to get them through a trip unless they have a good ear and memory.I found "Italian in 10 Minutes a Day" much better as you must write what you learn in a workbook.

Definitely not a stand-alone tool
I strongly agreed with the reviewers who described the Fodor's CD as poorly organized, too quickly spoken, and not terribly useful. In some instances they stated the English term and then followed it with the Italian; in others they stated the Italian term first. Because there was no warning about the switch, if you're not on your toes you may find yourself repeating the wrong Italian term for the English word you believe you are translating.

The dialogues, while spoken at natural speed) are often not translated into English on the CD. You can go to the book to read the translation, but if you're using the CDs in traffic as I did, that's impossible. The CD ended so abruptly I thought perhaps my player had failed. All in all, it seemed as though the DC was designed and produced rapidly and without much thought.

The book and CD are a great combination when your goal is to learn specific vocabulary and then hear the pronunciation of those specific key words. What I learned on the first CD - particularly numbers, dates, and times - was extremely helpful during my trip to Italy. (Although I have to admit that I listened to these sections of the CD repeatedly because I knew they would be essential.) But the CD would be a much stronger tool if it were consistently organized and included translations of the dialogues.

When I had time to work on the language before my trip to Florence, I often put the Fodors CDs aside in lieu of the Michel Thomas "Speak Italian" CDs, which were also a two-CD set, but taught me the basics language rather than memorized phrases. Using Michel Thomas, I was able to construct my own, fairly complex sentences in Italy by simply looking up one or two additional vocabulary words.

In terms of a phrase book, I preferred Rick Steve's. Steve's contained more practical phrases and information - some downright amusing - and it fit better in my pocket during the trip.

CDs are poorly organized.
I paid full price for this set because I'm planning a trip to Italy.The book isn't bad but the CDs are pretty terrible.They have boring drills on numbers and vocabulary.Not at all interactive.The phrases are read in Italian and then English, but sometimes in English and then Italian without warning.Since I know no Italian, I had a hard time knowing which English word went with which Italian word (and since I was listening in my car, I couldn't check the book while driving to find out).All in all this is a pretty poor set of language tapes, and it's way overpriced.I'm sure one can do better. ... Read more

Book Description
This hands-on guide helps develop programming skills on the 8086-based microcomputers. Introduces readers to assembly language programming through a comprehensive set of input/output procedures and useful subroutines for the most popular 8086-based operating systems. Covering fundamental data types, segmentation, assembler operation and modular programming, these routines let users apply assembly language ``shortcuts'' and programming techniques to specific applications. Offers a brief outline of the design of the l6-bit microprocessor and the architecture of the 8086 including the 80286 family of chips, presents the essentials on binary and hexadecimal numbers and shows how to write and execute a program. The complete instruction set is presented in the last nine chapters. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Active Learning in the Foreign Language Classroom
This book is an excellent tool for foreign language teachers looking to make the learning process an active one.From providing topic specific suggestions to activities that work for almost any topic, there are plenty of ideas you can begin to implement into your classroom right away.

Great Book
I purchased both of Ms.Blaz's books and I find them helpful in my classroom. ... Read more

Book Description
Here is a thorough and authoritative guide to the latest version of the S language and to its programming environment, the premier software platform for computing with data. Programming with Data describes a new and greatly extended version of S, and is written by the chief designer of the language. The book is a guide to the complete programming process, starting from simple, interactive use and continuing through ambitious software projects.
S is designed for computing with data - for any project in which organizing, visualizing, summarizing, or modeling data is a central concern. Its focus is on the needs of the programmer/user, and its goal is "to turn ideas into software, quickly and faithfully." S is a functional, object-based language with a huge library of functions for all aspects of computing with data. Its long and enthusiastic use in statistics and applied fields has also led to many valuable libraries of user-written functions.
The new version of S provides a powerful class/method structure, new techniques to deal with large objects, extended interfaces to other languages and files, object-based documentation compatible with HTML, and powerful new interactive programming techniques. This version of S underlies the S-Plus system, versions 5.0 and higher.
John Chambers has been a member of the technical staff in research at Bell Laboratories since 1966. In 1977, he became the first statistician to be named a Bell Labs Fellow, cited for "pioneering contributions to the field of statistical computing." His research has touched on nearly all aspects of computing with data, but he is best known for the design of the S language. He is the author or co-author of seven books on S, on computational methods, and on graphical methods; and he is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Definitive book on S language
This book was originally published in 1998 by MathSoft, and now with more demand I'm glad that it will be redistributed by Springer. As co-developer of the orginal S language, John Chambers new book is supposed to provide the most authorative reference on defining new, object-oriented (OOP)-style S for the current version of S-PLUS, and R. I think it may not have reached its full promise yet, partly, maybe because of its terse style and not-so-easy read for beginners. I have to admit myself I have ignored of it for quite a while until recently when I see its full power realized in the now fast developing R project, particularly Bioconductor project Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Solutions Using R and Bioconductor (Statistics for Biology and Health). I think it may be a dream work for software developers to have such a flexible and extensible computing environment in R and S so that much involved data objects and methods can be built so easily for many complex data mining and bioinformatics tasks. I think a big benefit of the open source approach to software developments is to enable researchers to reach quickly to users and to deliver the final promised land for collaboration and sharing of ideas and data. I think John Chambers truly deserves all the credit he gets for this work and for inspiring the R project, which is now beginning to gain widespread acceptance by the data mining and bioinformatic research communities.

A good tutorial on the S programming language.
This is the first book I've found that approaches the S programming language as more than an inconvenient detail that you have to learn to getto the cool statistics functions in "S-Plus." It's much moreaccessible than most of the books on S or S-Plus for people who aren'tactually statisticians, but need to use the language for some reason. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Useful dual-language format but a pedestrian translation
I am of two minds about this dual language edition of Colette's masterpiece "Cheri." The translation is almost literal in many places, making it easy to follow the French, on the left page and the translation in English on the right. But Appelbaum's translation unaccountably drifts from the literal into some vagaries that cause the wonderful humor to be lost; example:

When Madame Peloux and her cronies are meeting for tea and cards, the underaged and definitely stupid Prince Ceste discusses his family's anger at his affair with the seventy-year old Lili. He states "My family wants to shut me up in a convent (couvent)" Couvent is convent, and Ceste is plainly a bit mixed up, but Appelbaum changes the sentences indicate a monastery and explain "Like shutting up a girl in a convent." The humor of Prince Ceste's mistake is lost. The beauty of the language, with its subtle jokes is lost time and again--another example, where Lea wonders who fathered Cheri. In French, she wonders where Madame Peloux fished, to bring up such a magnificent specimen, but the English is completely dull and boring, missing the fishing metaphor entirely.

If you want a lovely translation, look for the one by Antonia White. If you want a side by side French/English version in ADDITION to White's amusing English version, I can recommend this edition. However, if you've never read "Cheri" in English, I'd suggest starting with White. And is it worth to read "Cheri"? Definitely. Why this hasn't been filmed, I'll never know. It reads like a screenplay and it is set in the last of Paris just after fin de siecle and pre-WWI, when Europe changed forever. It's charming, and a wonderful novel. ... Read more

Book Description


Learning a foreign language isn't like turning on a light switch. It's like decorating your Christmas tree; it will never be perfect.

This is my motto when learning foreign languages. Speaking a new language well requires a lot of time and work. But you will probably never speak absolutely perfectly.

This book is a guide to help you learn your new language. In it you will learn:

English Grammar

Foreign Grammatical Structures

The International Phonetic Alphabet

Necessary Tools for Learning another Language

Language Learning Tips

And Answers to many Questions ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

General help with the concept
Overall a helpful little book with the basic premise of trying to learn a foreign language from scratch. I liked the examples near the beginning that concerned parts of speech. Could have used a few more though. Really liked the word and phrase book concept at the end too.

Interesting Perspective
I found the comparison of the different languages very interesting. I've never looked at the similarities and differences between various languages before so reading this book gave me a new perspective. There are some very practical pages that can be copied and used for quick reference. I don't think anyone could master a language based on this book alone but it is a good starting point for figuring out how to apply what you already know about your own language to learning other languages.

Helpful guide to quickly picking up some phrases in any language
Author Simpson provides a useful list of things to learn at the end of this book--a section you can fill in to make your own phrase book. I'd say, copy out these pages into a notebook, a little spiral-bound one, and when you travel, learn these quick phrases by asking and repeating, then using them.

Language consists of two functions--vocabulary and grammar. Seems they are controlled by different parts of the brain and you might be the type to pick up words but not sentence structure, both of which you need to learn a new language (Man bites dog....)

This book won't really help you learn grammar, but it does point out some interesting observations at random about some grammars (Portuguese uses old forms of grammar dropped by the Spanish and has a widely-varied pronunciation.) The actual way to learn a foreign language is by repetition and imitation, like a baby, and methods like the Pimsleur and Rasselas really do work, but aren't really included in this book.

I'd say, use this book as a sort of guide for your own learning notebook--the fill-pages in the back are probably worth the entire book.

One more hint that Brandon Simpson points out is very very true: online translators are fraught with problems. Uh, garbage in, grabage out. That is so true--you can tell what reporter used one to translate a news article into English from a foreign language. I just saw one today that translated the German "Arche Noahs" as "Arche Noahs." I'll just bet that with a single glance, you and your kids can pretty much do a better job than that. ... Read more

Book Description

Before the first appearance of the Atlas of the World's Languages in 1993, all the world's languages had never been accurately and completely mapped. The Atlas depicts the location of every known living language, including languages on the point of extinction.

This fully revised edition of the Atlas offers:

• up-to-date research, some from fieldwork in early 2006
• a general linguistic history of each section
• an overview of the genetic relations of the languages in each section
• statistical and sociolinguistic information
• a large number of new or completely updated maps
• further reading and a bibliography for each section
• a cross-referenced language index of over 6,000 languages

Presenting contributions from international scholars, covering over 6,000 languages and containing over 150 full-colour maps, the Atlas of the World's Languages is the definitive reference resource for every linguistic and reference library.

Amazon.com
This is the Lisp programmers' bible. If you need to know the official specification, everyfunction defined in Common Lisp can be found in here somewhere. Anyone vaguely serious aboutprogramming in Lisp for extended periods of time should keep a copy of this book for reference. However,note that while this book is clearly written, it is not an introduction to programming in Lisp--CommonLisp: The Language only offers the language specification. Book Description
The defacto standard - a must-have for all LISP programmers.


In this greatly expanded edition of the defacto standard, you'll learn about the nearly 200 changes already made since original publication - and find out about gray areas likely to be revised later. Written by the Vice- Chairman of X3J13 (the ANSI
committee responsible for the standardization of Common Lisp) and co-developer of the language itself, the new edition contains the entire text of the first edition plus six completely new chapters. They cover: - CLOS, the Common Lisp Object System, with new features to support function overloading and object-oriented programming, plus complete technical specifications * Loops, a powerful control structure for multiple variables * Conditions, a generalization of the error signaling mechanism * Series and generators * Plus other subjects not part of the ANSI standards but of interest to professional programmers. Throughout, you'll find fresh examples, additional clarifications, warnings, and tips - all presented with the author's customary vigor and wit. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

The best reference you can get (but could be better)
This is *the* reference for ANSI Common Lisp. I wish it had some more examples, though. Sometimes I go to this book, find what I want, but need to check an example in some other book.
But you need this one if you're going to use Lisp (it's also available for free, legally).

this is the "bible" of common lisp
to enjoy this book, you must be aware of what it is and is not.it is not intended for learning lisp.it *is* intended for thoroughly documenting the language, and steele is perhaps the best writer alive in this field.his thoroughness, attention to detail, and copy-editing skills are nearly impossible to beat -- it's not a coincidence that he was chosen to write the standard for java, based on his work on this book.

Perhaps the best computer language reference ever written
"Common Lisp, The Language" (or CLTL) is an industrial-strength language reference for a somewhat esoteric computer language (in the view of most programmers today), so this tome is definitely not for the novice, nor for the faint of heart.However, if you are a true devotee of Common Lisp, then it is hard to imagine how you can escape this most sacred of texts.I own two dog-eared and heavily marked-up copies of the book, from which I have gotten my money's worth many times over.For years one or the other of these copies has been a permanent fixture on my desk, beside my keyboard.It is an invaluable reference for serious Common Lisp programmers.

However, as a previous reviewer pointed out, CLTL is strictly a reference, not a text.If you attempt to use it as an introductory text, you will hate both the book and the language, which will be your loss.To learn the language, I would recommend either "Lisp", by Winston and Horn, or "ANSI Common Lisp", by Paul Graham.After perhaps several years of serious Lisp programming, you will most likely find yourself studying the pages of CLTL, at which point you will appreciate what Guy Steele has succeeded in accomplishing in this slender volume of 1029 pages.Common Lisp is an enormous language, with over 800 built-in functions, many of which have complicated semantics and dozens of keywords that alter those semantics.Considering the daunting task of documenting this language, Steele deserves a medal.(In fact, the book has received various awards.)

Common Lisp was an integral part of several classes that I taught at Caltech for many years; I had students write compilers, interpreters, theorem provers, symbolic manipulators, numerical solvers, graph algorithms, etc.When you attack such a wide range of problems with a single language, you appreciate how rich Common Lisp is, and how well suited it is to all these tasks (yes, even numerical computation).But to get the most out of the language, it's necessary to tap into its more esoteric functions, which is where Steele's book is very handy.

I can think of few topics in the field of computer science that have as rich a history as the language Lisp.It's difficult to present a meaningful view of the language, especially in it's "Common" incarnation, without delving into some of that history.Steele does this exceedingly well in CLTL, although I can understand how it can be off-putting to some; it adds bulk to an already formidable tome, and at times seems to clutter up what ought to be a cut-and-dried presentation of syntax and semantics.However, unless you subscribe to the mystical view that Lisp was created by divine fiat (a theory that is gaining popularity), then you will inevitably have questions as to why things were done in one way and not another.The answers provide insight into language design (or at least the workings of the X3J13 committee), and at times a better mastery of Common Lisp.For those who do not care for such details, Steele sets the digressions off from the main body of the text, making them easy to skip.But I, for one, am happy that this information is recorded somewhere.(If nothing else, it keeps the creationists at bay.)

Like the mathematician Gilbert Strang, who manages to inject humor into the driest of mathematical journals, Steele has found ample opportunities to sneak bits of wordplay and irreverence into CLTL for comic relief.Not only does Steele enliven his program fragments with snippets of pop culture, as in

"(loop for turtle in teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles do..."

but all such references are assiduously listed in the index, which makes it a real hoot to glance through.Listed there are "Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus", and "Michelangelo (artist)" as well as "Michelangelo (turtle)".We also find things like "goody two-shoes", "oranges, comparing apples with", "square peg in round hole", and numerous foods, including garbanzo beans, ice cream, orange flavor beef, pizza, and peppermint.Under "pasta" we find "see also macaroni".But my favorite index entry is "kludges", which directs us to pages 1 through 971; which is, of course, the entire body of the book, excluding index and appendices.Steele obviously decided to have a little fun, which is understandable considering how dry such books tend to be.

But, before you click this book into your shopping cart, you should realize that the complete text is available on-line, and for free.I'm not sure how Steele swung this with the publisher, but it's out there in the public domain.Finally, I should point out that there are a number of excellent free Common Lisp interpreters available for many different platforms.The best I have found is CLISP, which is maintained primarily by Bruno Haible through the GNU Project.It's reasonably complete and robust.

Happy hacking.May cons be with you.

The sad state of Lisp documentation
I'm absolutely certain that CLtL's 4 star review average is indicative of some larger evil. I've been struggling with this book for too long now, and I can't take it anymore.

CLtL is one of the poorest examples of technical communication I've ever seen. Imagine being handed a 1000+ page Microsoft Word document, with the "Track Changes" option turned on. That's what it's like to read this book.

A lot of the prose rambles, with remarkably little content. Most of the time, the text sputters along, the flow will just get started, when it is interrupted by a change bar: "In 1988, ANSI voted to blah blah blah..." Reading this book is like riding the bumper cars at an amusement park. It is both visually and mentally jarring. And the examples?There are plenty of hackneyed examples, but almost no useful ones. Last night I ran across an example where the author flat out admits, in the text, that it is a useless and trivial exercise.

In summary, this book was written by Lisp experts, *for* Lisp experts. Newbies need not apply. This makes it even more remarkable as a bad example, in that it took Steele and others over 1000 pages to tell people something they already know. The bottom line? Aside from AMOP and Keene's excellent book on CLOS, there are *no* decent books for learning Common Lisp, the language. I've read almost all of them, including Graham's.

Make no mistake: Common Lisp is a great language, perhaps *the* most powerful language ever invented. But you sure wouldn't know that from reading this book.

Differs from the standard
Readers should be aware that is is not the official specification of ANSI Common Lisp.This book was published before the standardization work was finished, and the final standard disagrees with this book on a number of issues.

Don't let that stop you from buying this book, though; it is an excellent read, contains a wealth of useful information, and is funny as well.Just make sure you use the standard (available freely on the web as the "Hyperspec") as your authorative reference. ... Read more

Book Description
From English, French, Spanish and Russian to Pashto, Tagalog, and Swahili, this is the first comprehensive reference work to provide detailed information about the world's forty major languages.Written by acknowledged specialists in the field, the volume begins with a general introduction to language and language families, followed by language-family sections that provide an informative essay about that language, and individual chapters that discuss the history, distribution, syntax, grammar and punctuation, writing and spelling systems, standards of usage, and other important aspects of each language. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

The best of its kind
This is the best survey of the world's languages that I have come across. Although it is written by scholars for scholars to read, and parts of it are quite technical, nearly all of it can easily be understood by non-specialists. Taking (at random, the place where the book fell open) the chapter on Bengali as an example, the introduction describing the historical background occupies a little more than three pages and can be read by anyone. It is followed by a few pages on the writing and sound system, illustrated with appropriate tables and no more technical than it needs to be. The longest section is on morphology, and is again quite understandable. Afterwards comes a section on syntax, followed by concluding points. Altogether the chapter occupies 24 pages and is representative of the book as a whole.

The most difficult point to decide in compiling a book of this kind is the choice of languages to include: what constitutes a "major language"? On the whole the editors have taken the view that the importance of a language is determined by the number of speakers, but they have not been entirely rigid about that: Kannada, for example, has far more speakers than Czech and Slovak together, but is not included, whereas they are. There are others, such as Quechua (already mentioned by other reviewers), and the languages of the highlands of New Guinea (the most linguistically diverse region in the world) that have an interest that goes beyond their purely numericalimportance. However, the book already has more than 1000 pages, and it is much too easy to think of other languages to include, but much more different to think of ones to leave out.

The obvious choice (for me) would have been the chapter on Czech and Slovak -- not important enough numerically, not different enough from Russian, Polish and Serbo-Croat -- but apart from them it is very difficult to think of anything else to exclude to make room for others. Czech and Slovak (and to some degree Serbo-Croat, or Serbian and Croat as we call them today) illustrate another difficulty. The book was published in 1990, right at the end of a period in which the two languages had been moving together, and had become "on average 90 per cent mutually intelligible", but in the years since then they have been moving apart. Today's Slovaks would doubtless be happy to see their language included at all, but might be less happy to see it treated as little more than a variant version of Czech.

What of Spanish and Portuguese, both of them major languages by any standards, but, at least in written form, quite similar to one another and mutually intelligible for educated readers (again, in written form)? Rather than having two separate chapters occupying more than 40 pages, with abundant detail about their separate characteristics, but very little comparison and contrasting, it might have been more useful and interesting to deal with them (together with Catalan and Galician).

But these are minor quibbles. It would havebeen impossible to include all the languages one would like to see without going to several thousand pages, or a very different sort of book, with very little detailed information about each one. Mario Pei's various books were of this latter type, but of a far lower intellectual quality and much more superficial. As it stands Comrie's book can be thoroughly recommended, and at less than 4 cents per page (for the paperback) the price is very reasonable.

Good Survey
This book is a great, if dense, survey of the world's languages. As the title says, the book covers only "major languages" (for this reason, the Celtic languages are not included; neither are any Native American languages). The book is very thorough in its subject area (an overview, not a grammar primer). However, there are several negative points. The quality of the chapters, as noted by the two-star reviewer, does vary somewhat (although perhaps not as much as he makes it sound--no chapter is noticeably unprofessional throughout). There is also no unifying phonetic transcription. Some chapters use IPA, others a language-specific representation, and still others none at all. Finally, some chapters seem not to be very well organized (the Sanskrit chapter comes to mind--it contains far too much text and not enough charts or examples). The book also suffers from Euro-centrism, with several sections devoted to the various Indo-European language families of Europe and only one for the IE languages of India. The rest of the book does not seem as well-covered as the Indo-European language chapters.

In response to the complaint about Native American languages, I see both sides: Comrie's intent was to create a description of major languages. Whatever they may be, the Native American languages cannot really be called "major" (although Cherokee, Quechua, and perhaps Nahuatl come close). This is not to say that they do not deserve inclusion, though, so I see where the two-star reviewer was coming from. This does not, however, meant that the book is not worth purchasing--it certainly is.

A wonderful survey
The only thing I can say negative about this book is that it came out in hardcover first, for nearly $100, and after I bought that, the paperback came out at a third of the price. It is one of only a couple of books for which I was ever willing to pay that much money, and that alone should be a clue as to how much I liked it.

There are chapters on most of the important languages of the world, as well as some of the language families that include these languages. Each chapter is by a different expert (actually, a few people wrote more than one chapter), and so there is some unevenness in the treatment. But in general, each of the single-language chapters gives a relatively detailed summary of the grammar and vocabulary of the language it covers; the language-family chapters describe the common features of languages in the family. The level of detail is not that of a textbook in the language, but rather enough to give someone like myself (interested in linguistics, but not fluent in anything but my own native English) a good feeling for how the language works.

The first book of this type that I ever saw was Mario Pei's "The World's Chief Languages." This book goes into more detail on any individual language than Pei's book did, but covers a smaller number of languages (though more varied ones). It belongs in the library of anyone who wants to know a little bit of how a lot of languages work.

Excellent survey of the world's languages
This is easily one of the most useful books a student of linguistics, especially one interested in typology and language variation, could possibly have.I have often turned to it to satisfy my curiosity about a particular language or language family, and I have never been disappointed.The articles, all written by specialists in the language in question, are excellent, the typeface is very pleasant, and the binding is highly durable, suitable for constant use.The only complaint I could make would be about the choice of languages.I realize that only "the world's major languages" were supposed to be covered in this volume, but I would have liked to see an article on a Native American language (say, Quechua), or at least one on Native American languages in general.Aside from that, though, this book is wonderfully complete, and I have found it to be unmatched as a quick reference.It's probably my favorite non-fiction book.

An excellent 1-volume reference
This is a wonderfully thick, dense, wide-ranging piece of work. If you love delving into the complexities and peculiarities of individual languages, you could get lost in this book for hours on end. I checked out every section on a language &/or family that I'm well informed about, and found the info solid and trustworthy throughout.

The contributors are mostly British and American academic linguists, each of whom wrote a section. While there are differences in style--some iron-gray academic, some a bit more lively and colloquial--each author makes sure that each language receives coverage on all its levels. An abundance of examples and explanations ensures that the descriptions, though highly technical and dense, do not lapse into obscurity. This is probably the best 1-volume work of its kind that I have seen. Its only drawback is that some of the world's most interesting languages (such as Basque and other isolates; pidgins & creoles; and some Native American and Australian languages) receive little space due to the avowed focus on languages with large numbers of speakers. A volume which included sections on minor languages / families would more accurately represent the great variety that exists in languages throughout the world. ... Read more

Book Description
The Hebrew Bible, called the "Tenach" by Jews and "Old Testament" by Christians, was originally written in the Hebrew language using an ancient pictographic, or paleo-Hebrew, script. Through the study of this ancient language and script the words of the Bible will come alive to the reader in a way never seen before. When we read the Bible from our modern western perspective the original meanings of the words within the text are lost to us. Only by understanding these words in their original Hebraic context can we read the Bible through the eyes of the original authors. This book will examine the origins and history of the ancient Hebrew language and script and their close relationship to the culture of the ancient Hebrews. Included are detailed charts of the evolution of the ancient Hebrew script as well as many other related Semitic and non-Semitic scripts. Also included are the details of the root system of the Hebrew language, and a lexicon of ancient Hebrew roots to assist the reader of the Bible with finding the original cultural context for many Hebrew words. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Foundation for more work.... As he said...
You will want the Lexicon that he wrote, obviously with Strong's Guide, or as Albert Einstein said that the trick to invention is hiding your sources... This book is worth reading and thinking about. As expected with a do-it-yourself book, there are errors (excluding the fact of a bunch of unknowns).

The concept of a proper translation in English is brought to life. Some words just are not found at all, in Strong and his Lexicon (probably figuring Strong's knew, and that's another supporting fact that he must've used Strong's).

Saw him on campus last year... Texas A&M... while visting... made eye contact and... additionally he was with an older man. His wife must be a Jew since he gives her credit.

There is one point to learn, from the letters. Of course, him being maybe a Jew, if against God, AKA Jesus, then he would've never wrote this book.

Jesus, the beginning and the end. The Alph and the Taw. The red heifer (see cover, Hebrews 9 that says the... are worthless now which could only mean that his sacrifice also cleans with the right heart) and the cross (the end, the cross where the snake is dead - when the snake bites you, look to the cross where he is dead and be healed - as Moses spoke of him long ago). (The cover shows the Hebrew alphabet. Jesus had dark red hair.)

Another thing is that Jesus is not the same Jesus in the Qoran, because their Jesus is a mockery just like the whole brother-line of Ismael mocking Issac. I wrote another review on a book from them evil mockers that did not show up those first hours. Yet, God rebuked the place they said he died and where his bones were (as called on).

Knowing from what is, I'd say the reviewers of Amazon posts might be mockers, (that is if this is posted... I don't even know if they finally posted the review of the mocker book.)

So much for freedom of thought and religion.

A helpful tool
This is a great tool for one who wishes to study the ancient Hebrew text of the Bible. I believe much is lost in the English translation which is slanted by Western thinking. Well worth the price of the book

If you want to understand Hebrew READ THIS
This book is a wonderful introduction to the world of the Hebrew Language.I have been struggling to teach myself Hebrew, and frankly was having trouble learning the aleph-beit.So many letters that look similar!Such a different type of writing!And why do they have three letters than mean "s", more than one "K" and two that don't have any sound, anyway?

THIS BOOK ANSWERS THOSE QUESTIONS, and more!

This book explains the origins of Hebrew, and allows you to see what each of the ancient letters MEAN.I had been wondering how the sages made determinations of the "real" meanings of Hebrew words by looking at the letters that make them up, and now I know!This book will open a window to the Hebrew Language that will "turn you on" to how the language works, and how it affects the Jewish Faith.Their earliest beliefs about G-d will become very clear...just by studying the letters they used to spell his name.

GREAT BOOK.

Excellent Info for Any Bible Student
The book actually contains only about 50 pages of simple to understand background information on the ancient Hebrew language.The rest of the book deals with specific appendices that detail information on the pictographic and alphabetic characters themselves.All told, the info opens up a wide area of additional information on Bible names.

A most excellent intro to ancient hebrew
I loved this book. The rare opinion stated as fact and the few faith based comments do not change my feeling that this is a good intro to the subject.

I am a borderline agnostic with a sincere interest in Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, early Phoenecian scripts, etc.I don't care about anyone else's religious beliefs and I don't care if the occasional prejudice slips through between the lines now & then when I am reading the works of authors with a passion for their faith, as long as I am learning something in a subject of interest.

Sure, I disagreed with a few of Mr. Benner's opinions here and there but in the end I have to say that this is the single best book I have seen that teaches introductory 'Ancient Hebrew 101' in such a clear, readable, and most importantly, learnable fashion. Now I can order Mr. Benner's other books with confidence that I will actually learn a good deal of the subject matter rather than fall asleep trying to stay focused on the dry, boring, dull treatment of ancient scripts given by snobbish academians whose obvious priority is trying to impress their peers rather than actually teach the neophytes.

Another good book on ancient scripts is "Mysteries of the Alphabet" by Ouaknin.
... Read more