I'm aware of what he said on it, and I don't disagree with what he said, but you're misrepresenting him by leaving the preceding two lines out.
«As an advanced Lisp text, PAIP stands up very well. There are still very few other places to get a thorough treatment of efficiency issues, Lisp design issues, and uses of macros and compilers. (For macros, Paul Graham's books have done an especially excellent job.)
As an AI programming text, PAIP does well. The only real competing text to emerge recently is Forbus and de Kleer, and they have a more limited (and thus more focused and integrated) approach, concentrating on inference systems. (The Charniak, Riesbeck, and McDermott book is also still worth looking at.) One change over the last six years is that AI programming has begun to look more like "regular" programming, because (a) AI programs, like "regular" programs, are increasingly concerned with large data bases, and (b) "regular" programmers have begun to address things such as searching the internet and recognizing handwriting and speech. An AI programming text today would have to cover data base interfaces, http and other network protocols, threading, graphical interfaces, and other issues.»
While yes, it aged poorly as an AI text, and excellently as a Lisp & AI programming text, it's a better book than AI:AMA, even if ignoring that it's based around a better language.
I don't disagree with his assessment, exactly, but it leaves out that PAIP is just great as a look at the craft of programming, by example, even if old-school AI is not your main interest. See how he breaks down problems, develops solutions incrementally, expresses them in code, suggests further work. It offers another look at themes from SICP.
> but you're misrepresenting him by leaving the preceding two lines out.
That was the only place where he compared PAIP and AIMA. I guess he considers these books serving purposes different enough so comparisons in other areas have less sense. Back to where we started, PAIP isn't universally considered a better book, even though it's good.
«As an advanced Lisp text, PAIP stands up very well. There are still very few other places to get a thorough treatment of efficiency issues, Lisp design issues, and uses of macros and compilers. (For macros, Paul Graham's books have done an especially excellent job.)
As an AI programming text, PAIP does well. The only real competing text to emerge recently is Forbus and de Kleer, and they have a more limited (and thus more focused and integrated) approach, concentrating on inference systems. (The Charniak, Riesbeck, and McDermott book is also still worth looking at.) One change over the last six years is that AI programming has begun to look more like "regular" programming, because (a) AI programs, like "regular" programs, are increasingly concerned with large data bases, and (b) "regular" programmers have begun to address things such as searching the internet and recognizing handwriting and speech. An AI programming text today would have to cover data base interfaces, http and other network protocols, threading, graphical interfaces, and other issues.»
While yes, it aged poorly as an AI text, and excellently as a Lisp & AI programming text, it's a better book than AI:AMA, even if ignoring that it's based around a better language.