It's possible to satisfy a set of requirements with code that's low quality. There's the maintainability of the code, for example, or the performance of the system.
It's meant as an example. The function receives something, which we call v, and returns something else, which we call e. It's not meant to be taken literally as the variable names - otherwise, you are right, e is undefined in that example.
He is just showing how the syntax of a Scheme function corresponds to the structure of a JavaScript function.
'Engineering a Compiler' by Cooper & Torczon is a great resource. It gives context on each topic, explains them clearly, and at the same time, I think, it is a really good resource from an academic point of view. It still requires some investment in terms of time and effort, but I found it more approachable than the Dragon book. I would say that both cover more or less the same introductory stage to compilers construction. If you have read the Dragon book, I have the feeling that you are perfectly well prepared to write your own compiler.
It’s academic and comprehensive, that’s the issue. It’s not about writing a production grade compiler, though, in my humble opinion. There are more things to learn for that, unfortunately… is just a pretty big topic with lots of stuff to learn.
That's all right. Focusing on the cover's photo, for example, I think you used a photograph that you had around. A professional designer working on a cover would (hopefully) shoot a flower on a studio, with professional lightning equipment, arranging the light sources in a certain way. I mean to get the final result of the kinds of covers I linked to earlier, which to be honest are exceptionally well designed covers!...
Those are the kinds of details I was referring to. On the other hand, many computer science covers have historically been quite poor in terms of design, and of course that does not mean much about the quality of the book itself. Some poor covers became memorable and iconic. Some covers are really simple and yet effective like the O'Reilly covers which I particularly like.
Sorry this is going on a tangent unrelated to Lisp. I do like the design of the book cover with the elegant white background. Thanks for writing it, I can't wait to read it.
Or you mean he'll probably already know about the paper? Yes, I guess that's probably the case...
I did not think about it too much to be honest, I just knew that article and thought that he would really like it if he had not read it. But I can imagine somebody writing a book on the history of Lisp has already read probably all articles around on the topic.
When one learns about graphic design, one ends up obsessing about these kinds of things. "These text lines need a tiny little bit more of space"... "Those margins are slighly too small"...
It's just job conditioning... At some point in my life I was playing the game of trying to recognize the fonts I was looking at in the adds and signs as I walking down the street.
Definitely don't worry too much about it. I did not want to sound negative, it's just the first thing that came to mind as feedback. I haven't had the time to read the book, only had time to look at the cover, haha. :D
This one is similar but about Haskell, and is quite interesting as well: 'A history of Haskell: being lazy with class' by Paul Hudak, Simon Peyton Jones et al. https://doi.org/10.1145/1238844.1238856
There are some details about the typeface, layout, and the photograph that, as somebody with a certain background in graphic design, I can perceive as a little bit off.
I have some feedbak, nothing major, but I would say that a professional designer could help you improve the book cover. Right now somebody with professional experience in graphic design --or a good eye for design-- can probably see details in it that could be improved. It's a pity if you have worked on this for five years, not to present it in the best possible way.
I wonder if a subset of the language could be formalized, as some kind of opt-in decision. Like when TSR divided Dungeons & Dragons into D&D and AD&D...