Poll: Have you read SICP? • Hacker News Board

Re: Poll: Have you read SICP?

#81

Post by ethagnawl » Thu, Aug 04, 2011, 11:56 PM UTC

I watched the lectures and still find the intro song stuck in my head every few weeks.

Re: Poll: Have you read SICP?

#82

Post by kkylin » Thu, Aug 04, 2011, 11:59 PM UTC

boogles wrote: post #75

kkylin wrote: post #62

I read all of it, and also took 6.001 from Hal & Gerry. (Looking at the comments, I must be an exception.)

I recognize that username. Wasn't Gerry your advisor too? I imagine he might have made you read his SICM too.

Yup! Went through 2-3 iterations of SICM.

Re: Poll: Have you read SICP?

#83

Post by anigbrowl » Fri, Aug 05, 2011, 12:09 AM UTC

Needed: No, what is an SICP anyway?

Having read a few pages of Structure and Implementation of Computer Programs, available for free at http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/, I quite liked it and thought it was well-structured and well written, and have added it to my disturbingly large reading list.

Re: Poll: Have you read SICP?

#84

Post by lostmypw » Fri, Aug 05, 2011, 12:09 AM UTC

jinfiesto wrote: post #77

lostmypw wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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."

Interesting; thank you for providing your perspective. Both books indeed share most of the topics, although from glancing at both TOCs HR seems to add Polynomials and Corecursion. I'll gladly keep this in mind should I get stuck with HR.

Re: Poll: Have you read SICP?

#85

Post by hardboiled » Fri, Aug 05, 2011, 12:40 AM UTC

Only first two chapters. But it was enough to blow my mind. Also reminded me of how my math skills had to be polished.

Re: Poll: Have you read SICP?

#86

Post by mahmud » Fri, Aug 05, 2011, 1:26 AM UTC

I read all of it and solved a substantial number of the exercises. If anybody knows how to recover lost data from a dead HD with ext2 file system, I would get the adventures of my youth back.

Re: Poll: Have you read SICP?

#87

Post by Ben_Dean » Fri, Aug 05, 2011, 2:39 AM UTC

twice. will do it again soon.

Re: Poll: Have you read SICP?

#88

Post by eru » Fri, Aug 05, 2011, 2:39 AM UTC

ecyrb wrote: post #38

arohner wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd be surprised. I worked through SICP a few years after graduating, and after the dragon book, and it still managed to warp my brain in new and exciting ways.

Congrats on making it through both. I haven't gotten to the dragon yet... For those interested, you can get a red dragon for significantly less than the newer editions (check amazon).

I never understood what people like about the Dragon book. It talks you through implementing a compiler for an imperative language in an imperative language in a very pedestrian way. Give me more theory!

Re: Poll: Have you read SICP?

#89

Post by ekm » Fri, Aug 05, 2011, 2:57 AM UTC

I read two chapters in Freshman year,then switched to my Java coursework.Today's posts have made me think of going back to it.

Re: Poll: Have you read SICP?

#90

Post by jdefr89 » Fri, Aug 05, 2011, 3:00 AM UTC

Honestly I Don't Know why there is so much hype about it... It just looks like any book that explains building levels of abstraction... I would never say it's an essential..