Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!lacey
From: lacey@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (John Lacey)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: SETL (was Re: Multiple Return Values From Functions)
Summary: More SETL books
Keywords: SETL, ISETL
Message-ID: <8519@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Date: 29 Jul 89 20:40:56 GMT
References: <1207@quintus.UUCP> <15141@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <8271@boring.cwi.nl> <584@sjfc.UUCP>
Reply-To: lacey@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (John Lacey)
Distribution: na, eur
Organization: Cornell Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca NY
Lines: 31

In article <584@sjfc.UUCP> dlm@sjfc.UUCP (Don Muench) writes:
>Such a feature can be found in the new interactive language ISETL, a derivative
>of SETL.  ISETL was written by Gary Levin, Clarkson U, Potsdam, NY 13676, USA.
>I have used this language in teaching discrete math - it's very nice.  The
>only book that refers to it is Baxter, Dubinsky, Levin, "Learning Discrete
>Mathematics with ISETL",  Springer Verlag, 1989.

From what I understand about my `conversations' with Gary Levin, ISETL is
not a derivative of SETL, but simply an interactive implementation.  I found
that statement to be fairly accurate.  In which case there is another book
available, ``Programming with Sets: An Introduction to SETL.''  I posted
a question about this book (and SETL) about a month ago.  It too is 
published by Springer-Verlag, and Dubinsky is one of the authors.

I found both books unsatisfying.  As I have said before, the Programming 
with Sets book is in the style of the original Lisp 1.5 manual---the authors
can't seem to decide if they want to describe programming with sets, the SETL
language, or the particular implementation they are using.  In the end, they
don't adequately describe any of the three.

As for the discrete math text, if you follow the text, I think you taught
SETL using discrete math, rather than the other way around.  Now, I like
SETL, and I think it has great promise, and Gary Levin's implementation
I have found to be excellent.  But I don't think any good books about
either SETL or ISETL have been written yet.

Cheers,

-- 
John Lacey                      |     cornell!batcomputer!lacey
lacey@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu    |     lacey@crnlthry.bitnet