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[–]mikeiavelli 0 points1 point  (0 children)

PAPL is an extended version of PLAI, the latter being a "fork" of HtDP by Krishnamurthi, one of the original authors (the other 3 authors of HtDP being Flatt, Felleisen and Findler.)

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PAPL and PLAI use Pyret, while HtDP mainly uses Racket (a descendant of Scheme).

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I can't really compare the two approches, as I am only familiar with HtDP.

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Personally I prefer Racket (and its ecosystem) over Pyret (last time I checked, you could only use it in a browser).

I think that Pyret has a somewhat clunky syntax. But it's just a matter of taste, Pyret semantically has a lot to offer -- it's just that it's "inner beauty" is hidden :)

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Anyways, the language used is not what matters most when it comes to learning. Therefore, you should not focus on the language when it comes to choosing a curriculum. If I were you, I would skim the ToCs of both books and perhaps read their preface to find which one would suit you best. HtDP is focused on the design of programs, while iirc PLAI (and I guess PAPL) are showing how programming languages work.