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Poll: Have you read SICP?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: Have you read SICP?

#71

Post by lostmypw »

niels_olson wrote: post #60
ricardobeat wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Abelson and Sussman expect you to either be a bachelor's degree candidate with a lot of time to work on this I think that's to be expected for a university course textbook.

No doubt, it wasn't intended as a negative. But for the independent student, stating what may seem obvious can be critically necessary. Compared to both O'Reilly titles and plenty of assigned course readings, that wasn't entirely clear to me until I had a few problem sets done. For example, Norvig's review makes it sound like it can be read lightly. Maybe only if your name is Norvig. I don't know.

Maybe the CTM book might be something for you as well. See my other comment[1] to learn more about it. Norvig says[2] the following about it:

    Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming (Van Roy
    & Haridi) is seen by some as the modern-day successor to Abelson &
    Sussman. It is a tour through the big ideas of programming,
    covering a wider range than Abelson & Sussman while being perhaps
    easier to read and follow. It uses a language, Oz, that is not
    widely known but serves as a basis for learning other languages.
[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2848027

[2] http://norvig.com/21-days.html

Re: Poll: Have you read SICP?

#73

Post by candeira »

I have started it twice: first time I got to chapter 3, second time I got stuck at chapter 4. It sounds a bit petulant to say, but I think it already has made me a better programmer. I had to stop for various life-related issues, but I love how it's written. Whatever you think of it as a beginner's textbook, it's a great piece of literature.

Recently I had to do some Gimp scripting and got some experience using Scheme as a programming language (as oppoosed to a learning language for doing SICP exercises). The moment I have some free time again I will try SICP again.

Re: Poll: Have you read SICP?

#74

Post by lostmypw »

An enthusiast has created an improved version[1] of SICP, free download available.

Description:

    The typography has been modernized for better on-screen legibility
    and comfort. All the mathematics is set in proper TEX, and figures
    redrawn in vector graphics.
[1] http://sicpebook.wordpress.com/2011/05/28/new-electronic-sic...

Re: Poll: Have you read SICP?

#76

Post by TomLimoncelli »

I read it this January after hearing it mentioned so many times. I was very impressed. My impressions were: 1. Ah, that's what it would have been like to attend a GOOD university! 2. Much of the systems knowledge I learned the hard way are clearly explained here. This would have jumpstarted my career by 10 years. 3. No current first-year student would sit through this. Though, it should be required reading for seniors.

Re: Poll: Have you read SICP?

#77

Post by jinfiesto »

lostmypw wrote: post #69
niels_olson wrote: post #28

Personally, I'm a physician with an undergrad in physics, played with logo and basic as a kid. I picked up SICP and got to chapter 2 or 3 on my own time last summer but set it down to go learn Python as it was pretty obvious Abelson and Sussman expect you to either be a bachelor's degree candidate with a lot of time to work on this, or you have a substantial background understanding to bring to bear. I tried Ruby but…

> My goal is really to add math to my diet, ... I've started reading "The Haskell Road to Logic, Maths and Programming", maybe that's something for you or some other lurker here that would like to improve on math. There is a review [2] that gives an interesting impression on the book. The other ones at amazon might also be interesting. The table of contents + first chapter is available as a postscript file[3]. This s…

I have this book as well has "How to Prove it." They cover virtually the same material, however I found the prose in "The Haskell Road" to be stilted and sometimes confusing. I got much more out of "How to Prove it."

Re: Poll: Have you read SICP?

#78

Post by jinfiesto »

ricardobeat wrote: post #32
niels_olson wrote: post #28

Personally, I'm a physician with an undergrad in physics, played with logo and basic as a kid. I picked up SICP and got to chapter 2 or 3 on my own time last summer but set it down to go learn Python as it was pretty obvious Abelson and Sussman expect you to either be a bachelor's degree candidate with a lot of time to work on this, or you have a substantial background understanding to bring to bear. I tried Ruby but…

Abelson and Sussman expect you to either be a bachelor's degree candidate with a lot of time to work on this I think that's to be expected for a university course textbook.

Hmm, it took me about 6 months to get through SICP the first time. I worked on it probably about an hour a day and more on weekends. I wouldn't worry about trying to understand everything the first time through. I got much more out of subsequent readings.

Re: Poll: Have you read SICP?

#80

Post by neilk »

b_emery wrote: post #48

For those who have read it, I'd be interested in knowing what it is that you feel you got out of it, ie how did it make you a better programmer? Better understanding of what's going on at a low level?

A much better understanding of what the computer is really doing, a much bigger bag of tricks to pull out when faced with a hard problem.

Post SICP, I have no fear of recursive algorithms, or closures, and a healthy understanding of asynchrony. So the kind of JavaScript programming that a lot of people find advanced is very natural to me.

A few months ago I implemented a JS library to parse a certain format using some fancy recursive JS combinators. It's fast, it's innovative, and it will be used on a few top-50 websites pretty soon. Internally, the thing is all about the techniques I learned from SICP -- the intermediate format is basically Scheme in JSON form.

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