It’s been almost two months since I last posted. In that time, I’ve more or less stuck to “the plan” as I called it in my last post: holding off on working through SICP while focusing on studying logic, semantics, and math. The (numerical) math aspect of the plan has basically fallen through, but I managed to complete the outstanding EdX course Language, Proof, and Logic. The MOOC doesn’t address set theory or advanced topics, but the textbook that shares the title of the course does, and in a very approachable way.

That said, I’m still scattering my attention, albeit within a narrower domain. There’s a lot to learn about logic, and now that I’m done with LPL, my semi-structured study plan has somewhat fallen apart. On the bright side, some of the topics I’m studying in my Linked Data course in my MLIS program align with/overlap with/point toward my interest in formal logic, so I think I’m effectively using that to motivate my continued study of logic (e.g., I would like to be able to understand and work with Description Logics, a term often used with the word “underpinniing” in relation to OWL, the Web Ontology Language).

It does not always feel like it, but I have made progress. In fact, that’s really what motivated this post. A little over 9 years ago, I bought the book Computational Semantics with Functional Programming. I don’t even really remember why I did, other than having a long-standing interest in computers and language. The book was too hard for me when I first bought it, and has remained too hard for me each time I’ve revisited it, including this year. But it is what first motivated me to study first order logic. I have now made it through the first 100 pages (necessarily skipping some exercises and leaning on the solutions provided on the book’s website, of course). That would not have been possible without working through most of HtDP2, completing Dan Grossman’s Programming Languages courses on Coursera, and finishing the LPL course. One hundred pages, isn’t much, but it’s still progress. Here’s to the next hundred.