The Book of Shen, 4th ed

The source for the Shen is remarkably small; the Shen kernel is just over 3,700 lines of Shen code. However the ideas integrated within the kernel cover several modules in university computer science: functional programming, logic programming, type theory, formal language theory and compiler theory being some of them
The Book of Shen (TBoS) covers all the material needed to program in Shen and. to understand the code in the kernel. TBoS presupposes no special knowledge, in that nothing is assumed, but it does demand talent and commitment to derive complete understanding from it
There are two levels of understanding with respect to Shen. The first is the understanding of how to program in Shen. The second is the understanding of how the kernel works and the logical foundations of Shen. A newcomer will first wish 10 attain the first level of understanding, before deciding if he wishes to attain to the level of the second.
Accordingly the chapters in this book are partitioned into starred and unstarred. chapters. The unstarred chapters deal with how to program in Shen and contain application programs which can be downloaded from the Shen website. The starred chapters deal with computational and logical foundations of Shen. These starred chapters are for those Who want to attain the second level of understanding.
Since TBoS covers many years of research and development, it is unlikely the reader will vault through these pages in any short time. It is suggested that the logical way to read TBoS is to read the unstarred chapters first and then the starred ones.