From: Ramakrishnan Muthukrishnan Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2010 02:41:56 +0000 (+0530) Subject: Solution to exercise 1.6. X-Git-Url: https://git.rkrishnan.org/components/com_hotproperty/%22doc.html/statistics?a=commitdiff_plain;h=6a7606d4a71f8eed73e5883311d60524512e709c;p=sicp.git Solution to exercise 1.6. --- diff --git a/chapter1/ch1_1.clj b/chapter1/ch1_1.clj index 733f23c..777e384 100644 --- a/chapter1/ch1_1.clj +++ b/chapter1/ch1_1.clj @@ -115,3 +115,27 @@ (sqrt-iter 1.0 x)) ;; exercise 1.6 +;; Alyssa P. Hacker doesn't see why if needs to be provided as a special form. +;; ``Why can't I just define it as an ordinary procedure in terms of cond?'' +(defn new-if [predicate then-clause else-clause] + (cond predicate then-clause + :else else-clause)) + +(new-if (= 3 2) 0 5) ; 5 +(new-if (= 1 1) 0 5) ; 0 + +;; Delighted, Alyssa uses new-if to rewrite the square-root program: + +(defn sqrt-iter [guess x] + (new-if (good-enough? guess x) + guess + (sqrt-iter (improve guess x) + x))) + +;; what happens when Alyssa attempts to use this to compute square roots? Explain. +(comment + Since `new-if' is a function, when it is called from sqrt-iter, the parameters + are evaluated before it gets called. good-enough? will return a false unless + the guess and x are almost the same. guess evaluated to the initial value of + guess. sqrt-iter gets evaluated, but gets into an infinite loop. The predicate + will have no effect.) \ No newline at end of file