Chapter 3 started off by introducing state variables. This was quite new for chapters 1 and 2 used stateless procedures to solve problems. With the introduction of state came new problems. The substitution model of evaluation was no longer adequate to figure out how a given procedure would work. The authors introduced what is called the Environment Model as a better suited means of evaluation. The new model made good use of environment diagrams to help the process. In fact many exercise problems require the student to come up with environment diagrams along with the actual procedures.
The authors then focused on a prominent outcome of using assignment - mutable data. This involved learning to work with mutable lists and designing implementations of queues and tables. The understanding of mutable data and data structures were put to use in solving problems related to simulating digital circuits and constraint propagation.
The next section demonstrated the problems created when assignment and concurrency collide. Serialization was discussed in some depth as one possible way to control problems related to concurrency. I learned to implement simple mutexes and serializers.
The last section of the chapter - Streams - proved to be the most interesting and conceptually difficult to understand. In general streams are data structures used to represent sequences. They are distinct from lists in that they make use of delayed evaluation. What makes them fascinating is how such a powerful concept is built using such simple ingredients as
force and delay.
Streams proved to be difficult to tackle in the beginning. The breakthrough came when I learned to ignore the syntax (the force and delay bits in particular) and look at streams purely as sequences, sometimes mathematical ones. Understanding stream operations became easier once I visualized these operations as "machinery working on moving assembly lines".
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