Lance Colton wrote:googling for reviews brings up interesting information regarding the book, how deep does it go into each of the languages? From what I'm reading it looks like just introducing each language with a problem to solve pragmatically after each language, however how difficult are the problems and how detailed are the introductions?
Scala looks exciting (as a java developer interested in functional programming.) Haskell I've already started diving into however would not want to learn both, would I be correct in assuming this would be a good read in terms of helping me decide which to pick up next?
Thanks in advance
It will not take you into too much depth. The goal is to cover the essence of a language, and get to the point where I solve a nontrivial problem with each language. For Ruby, we solve a simple metaprogramming problem; for Prolog, we solve a Sudoku; for Scala, we count words on four different web pages concurrently.
The idea of the book is not to be a reference for an individual language, but to tap the joy for programming to program using a new language. If you're choosing from two or more languages in the book, it would be an excellent resource. If you're looking for more of a Scala reference, I'd suggest my good friend Venkat Subramanyam's scala book found here:
http://pragprog.com/titles/vsscala/programming-scala
So yeah, for choosing a language to dive into next, I'd say it would be excellent. If you get a PDF at the prags, you wouldn't pay more than for taking the kids to a ball game or a movie.