Paul Graham on SICP (2000)
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Paul Graham on SICP (2000)
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Re: Paul Graham on SICP (2000)
#2I first read SICP after 25 years of professional development, and while I didn't learn anything new I did see things in a whole new light. I think it would have been really useful to have read the book 25 years ago: I think you're going to benefit from having a few years of real-world development experience before reading this book. The profundity, impact and applicability to your work will be much greater. Highly recommended.
This comment is for the Scheme-based book. I've never seen the Python-based version.
Re: Paul Graham on SICP (2000)
#3"al" is the brother of e.e. cummins. He's incredibly prolific.
Re: Paul Graham on SICP (2000)
#4I first read SICP after 25 years of professional development, and while I didn't learn anything new I did see things in a whole new light. I think it would have been really useful to have read the book 25 years ago: I think you're going to benefit from having a few years of real-world development experience before reading this book. The profundity, impact and applicability to your work will be much greater. Highly re…
There is no Python-based version, Abelson and Sussman only produced one SICP based on Lisp.
It is unfortunate that there are other courses by people not associated with Abelson and Sussman that have kept the same name but not the material. It is misleading to refer to these as "SICP" as they lack pretty much everything that made SICP great. SICP works on _multiple_ levels, it is not [just] a book about Lisp or a book about programming. It is this "emergent" quality that it has that makes it a masterpiece.
Someone wrote that "Philosophy is any culture’s pole of maximum abstraction, or intrinsically experimental intelligence, expressing the liberation of cognitive capabilities from immediate practical application, and their testing against ‘ultimate’ problems at the horizon of understanding." In this sense, SICP is a supremely philosophical book.
Re: Paul Graham on SICP (2000)
#5Hagiography at its finest! But, a, cool, review!
Re: Paul Graham on SICP (2000)
#6I first read SICP after 25 years of professional development, and while I didn't learn anything new I did see things in a whole new light. I think it would have been really useful to have read the book 25 years ago: I think you're going to benefit from having a few years of real-world development experience before reading this book. The profundity, impact and applicability to your work will be much greater. Highly re…
There is no Python-based version, Abelson and Sussman only produced one SICP based on Lisp. It is unfortunate that there are other courses by people not associated with Abelson and Sussman that have kept the same name but not the material. It is misleading to refer to these as "SICP" as they lack pretty much everything that made SICP great. SICP works on _multiple_ levels, it is not [just] a book about Lisp or a book…
Do you need to have a solid foundation in lisp to understand it or is it approachable for experienced software developers in other domains?
Re: Paul Graham on SICP (2000)
#7And there should be a Peter Norvig review too for SICP, just in the vicinity of PG's.
Link: https://www.amazon.com/review/R403HR4VL71K8/ref=cm_cr_rdp_pe...
Re: Paul Graham on SICP (2000)
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no Python-based version, Abelson and Sussman only produced one SICP based on Lisp. It is unfortunate that there are other courses by people not associated with Abelson and Sussman that have kept the same name but not the material. It is misleading to refer to these as "SICP" as they lack pretty much everything that made SICP great. SICP works on _multiple_ levels, it is not [just] a book about Lisp or a book…
Do you need to have a solid foundation in lisp to understand it or is it approachable for experienced software developers in other domains?
You don't need any foundation in lisp to understand it. The exercises may seem a little hard, but as long as you go through those, you will gain a lot.
Re: Paul Graham on SICP (2000)
#9Was glad to see this posted here, especially since in late August, I'll be taking the one-week SICP course that David Beazley in the Python community put together:
Re: Paul Graham on SICP (2000)
#10I am going through SICP currently, after having it on my reading list for long. Loving it so far. I agree that exercises in the book shouldn't be skipped, not a single one. You might seem to have grasped the material until you take up the exercises and realise there is more to it.