Which book should I read first(not literature)?

[Gladjaframpf]

Mostly it does lots of recursion.

To be honest I'm not really sure what practical applications it's good for, if any, but I really like it for writing short programs to do silly things.

[guff]

what can scheme do

i'd say in general it's more suited to mathematical applications but the gimp's script-fu engine uses it too

[Daddy]

can it play dead

[guff]

just post the clucky conversation emulator already

[Dullahan]

I have to use Java in my computer science course next semester. Is it better than Visual Basic?

[Gladjaframpf]

Very yes. Although I have a bit of a grudge against VB after being forced to use it for three years in high school.