Dylan Programming: An Object-Oriented and Dynamic Language [Paperback]

Sonya E. Keene (Author), Robert O. Mathews (Author), P. Tucker Withington (Author), Neal Feinberg (Editor), robert Mathews (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201479761 | ISBN-13: 978-0201479768 | Publication Date: August 1996 | Edition: 1st

This book will be useful to anyone learning dynamic, object-oriented programming, whether it be in Dylan, Java, Smalltalk, or Lisp. - Andrew Shalit, author of The Dylan Reference Manual Dylan is a new programming language invented by Apple Computer and developed with Harlequin and other partners. The language is both object-oriented, like C++ and Java, and dynamic, like Smalltalk. Dylan is designed to deliver applications that run efficiently on a wide range of platforms. It also facilitates the rapid development and incremental refinement of prototype programs. Dylan is a good choice for any application, but you will find it particularly useful for complex object-oriented programs, and for programs that may need to be changed "on the fly." Public-domain implementations of Dylan are available for most popular computer systems. Harlequin has developed the first complete, commercial implementation of the language--including both compiler and development environment. You will learn here the benefits of dynamic, object-oriented programming, and how to write practical Dylan programs. Dylan Programming gets you started quickly, with a simple but complete program that lets you experiment with the language. It then leads you progressively through the development of a sample application, illustrating advanced topics such as macros, modules, libraries, inher itance, performance, and exceptions. This book is appropriate for any Dylan implementation. It assumes that you can program in some conventional language, but requires no prior knowledge of object-oriented or dynamic techniques. The authors have all worked on Harlequin's Dylan product. Neal Feinberg manages the development of Harlequin's database technology. Sonya E. Keene, author of Object-Oriented Programming in COMMON LISP, publishes large documents on the World Wide Web. Robert O. Mathews was previously the OSF documentation project leader for Motif and DCE. P. Tucker Withington designs and develops automatic memory-management facilities for Dylan. Harlequin--The Late-Binding Companyo--is a 10-year-old, independent software firm specializing in symbolic processing, electronic publishing, World Wide Web, and intelligence analysis. Harlequin has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. 0201479761B04062001

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

programming, whether it be in Dylan, Java, Smalltalk, or Lisp.

- Andrew Shalit, author of The Dylan Reference Manual Dylan is a new programming language invented by Apple Computer and developed with Harlequin and other partners. The language is both object-oriented, like C++ and Java, and dynamic, like Smalltalk. Dylan is designed to deliver applications that run efficiently on a wide range of platforms. It also facilitates the rapid development and incremental refinement of prototype programs. Dylan is a good choice for any application, but you will find it particularly useful for complex object-oriented programs, and for programs that may need to be changed "on the fly."

Public-domain implementations of Dylan are available for most popular computer systems. Harlequin has developed the first complete, commercial implementation of the language--including both compiler and development environment.

You will learn here the benefits of dynamic, object-oriented programming, and how to write practical Dylan programs.

Dylan Programming gets you started quickly, with a simple but complete program that lets you experiment with the language. It then leads you progressively through the development of a sample application, illustrating advanced topics such as macros, modules, libraries, inher itance, performance, and exceptions. This book is appropriate for any Dylan implementation. It assumes that you can program in some conventional language, but requires no prior knowledge of object-oriented or dynamic techniques.

The authors have all worked on Harlequin's Dylan product. Neal Feinberg manages the development of Harlequin's database technology. Sonya E. Keene, author of Object-Oriented Programming in COMMON LISP, publishes large documents on the World Wide Web. Robert O. Mathews was previously the OSF documentation project leader for Motif and DCE. P. Tucker Withington designs and develops automatic memory-management facilities for Dylan.

Harlequin--The Late-Binding Companyo--is a 10-year-old, independent software firm specializing in symbolic processing, electronic publishing, World Wide Web, and intelligence analysis. Harlequin has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

0201479761B04062001

About the Author

Neal Feinberg manages the development of Harlequin's database technology.Harlequin--The Late-Binding Company --is a 10-year-old, independent software firm specializing in symbolic processing, electronic publishing, World Wide Web, and intelligence analysis. Harlequin has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.For more information about Harlequin, check out http://www.harlequin.com/.Sonya Keene is an experienced FrameMaker user who has converted long documents to HTML using a variety of tools. is a technical writer at Harlequin, coauthor of Dylan Programming, and author of Object-Oriented Programming in Common Lisp. Harlequin is an independent software firm specializing in electronic publishing, symbolic processing, and intelligence analysis, with offices in the U. S., the U. K., and Australia.For more information about Harlequin and WebMaker: http://www.harlequin.com/Robert O. Mathews was previously the OSF documentation project leader for Motif and DCE. He has worked on Harlequin's Dylan product.P. Tucker Withington designs and develops automatic memory-management facilities for Dylan. 0201479761AB04062001

Product Details

• Paperback: 412 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub (Sd); 1st edition (August 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201479761
• ISBN-13: 978-0201479768
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,213,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From the fruits, an excellent book for teaching Dylan, August 4, 2000

By 

Douglas M. Auclair (Springfield, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dylan Programming: An Object-Oriented and Dynamic Language (Paperback)

As the instructor of "Practical Object-Oriented Programming" (a 5-week course that uses Dylan that teaches object/functional application in the software domain), I chose _Dylan Programming_ as the text book. It is well-suited to the methodology of teaching programming: the chapters can be comprehended by people with no programming background (I had two such students), yet the material is stimulating so that even experienced programmers find it useful. Married with the Functional Developer (a Dylan IDE), _Dylan Programming_ makes teaching, or learning, Dylan quick and easy.

I have three points where I find the book wanting: organization, exactness/correctness, and completeness.

I found the book's organization a bit puzzling: especially when it came to control structures. In my teaching sessions, I needed to move forward 11.1-11.5 (skipping parts of 11.3 and all of 11.4) before I covered chapter 4 (classes). Also, interspersing the airport example seemed random at times, particularly in the second half of the book. I chose to skip those chapters (for teaching purposes).

The book was incorrect for several of its page references. This was particularly annoying as it happened that I followed a reference on several occasions, only to be led to the wrong page. For example, page 182 (center) refers one to page 172 for the definition of sum (a function), this function actually appears on page 174. Page 183 (center) refers one to page 147 for the use of curry ... this example is actually at the end of page 148. Page 183 (center), again, refers one to page 181 for the use of the function choose, which is not mentioned until page 182 ... and on, and on, and on. Some references were so obscure that I could not find what these references meant on any page near the page they mentioned. Chasing referred pages, then, became a tiresome venture that often disappointed.

As for completeness, I mentioned in the previous paragraph the function choose, a very useful function. However, if one looks in the index, no mention, anywhere, is made of it. The authors took pains to highlight it in the text, explain it, and provide an example. This exact problem exists also for the function apply, another very useful function. _Dylan Programming_ falls down in the index for generalities as well as specifics, as we've seen: no entry exists for first-, or higher-, order functions. Also, the index entries for protocol and efficiency point to one line definitions in introductory sections, where their explanations occur much later in those chapters.

Even though the index has some faults, the references are off at times (too often, unfortunately), and I disagree with the book's presentation of fundamental topics too late, the book shines overall, and shines primarily that it teaches Dylan well.

First, some of the book's explanations surpass those of the _Dylan Reference Manual_ (DRM). It used illustrations, code examples, and metaphors repeatedly to get the point of the section across. Not only that, but it went in depth on some topics where the DRM chose terseness: for example, _Dylan Programming_ has explained modules as namespaces very well. Accompanying many sections were interactive examples in a Dylan listener so that the reader could try out the topic's techniques as they read.

Second, the book unifies the presentation of the language very well. The DRM is excellent at examining language features piece by piece; _Dylan Programming_ is excellent at putting these pieces together at the chapter level. They even have a bulleted chapter summary of the topics covered.

And, third, the book succeeds in a practical way. All of my students were new to Dylan (some new to programming), yet each completed their final project assignments, due in large part to the help this book gave them. One programming neophyte created a final project that computed the possible blood types of a child from known parents' blood types (a relatively simple task), but then created a blood type inference system that postulated a blood type of a parent based on one parent's and the child's blood type ... a more significant achievement. Another created a mathematical symbolic processor (it found, among other things, the roots of quadratic equations).

Overall, then, this book has some minor shortcomings. As a book to learn Dylan, though, it is without peer, and I strongly recommend it as the first book from which to learn the language.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good programming book, January 20, 1999

By 

Brandon Corfman - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dylan Programming: An Object-Oriented and Dynamic Language (Paperback)

I think this is one of the better programming books I've seen, in that it is task-oriented. The authors have a goal of building a program to do airport scheduling; while they are building this program, they are teaching you Dylan. Consequently, you are learning how to do a real-world task (well, at least someone's real world task) rather than just a bunch of example programs that don't correlate well or at all. Along the way, they are teaching you how to build classes and methods effectively, which is sadly lacking in most other programming tomes.

The only thing that I considered a "problem" is that it took them until chapter 11 to start discussing control structures (like the loops and decision statements). My attention was wandering and I had to skip ahead to keep my interest.

It also seems to be oriented towards people who are already familiar with C++ or Java (or some other object-oriented language), which is probably not a bad assumption. I can't imagine someone picking this up as their first language, but it is just a word of warning, just in case.

In summary, very, very good book. Don't make the mistake of getting the Dylan Reference Manual as a way to learn Dylan -- "Dylan Programming" is the book to get for learning the language.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for Dylan newbies and not-so-newbies alike, May 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dylan Programming: An Object-Oriented and Dynamic Language (Paperback)

While primarily aimed at people just learning Dylan, this book has some great info for people who already understand Dylan reasonably well (the chapter on performance is especially valuable.) The book is well written, and the information in the book is very accurate.

The book does not attempt to cover all the standard Dylan functions and classes, and thus it does not intend to replace the Dylan Reference Manual (DRM). I often find myself using this book as a reference for language features though.