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SICP: JavaScript Edition available for pre-order

mitpress.mit.edu

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Re: SICP: JavaScript Edition available for pre-order

#71

Post by aaomidi »

namelosw wrote: post #67

SICP in Python - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22994976 You can see there's more negativity in this thread compared to the Python one. HN crowd is pretty hostile toward JavaScript. Yet JavaScript is obviously a better choice than Python in terms of SICP Scheme substitute. For example: - JavaScript is arguably a Scheme descendant, or at least have closer blood ties with Scheme than Python. - The Lambda in Pytho…

I've really noticed that people rage that Javascript and npm removed so much of a barrier to tech.

Try publishing a dependency for Java. Now try doing it for JS.

Everyone was able to do highly concurrent workloads. Something that was extremely difficult before Javascript.

It just smells of elitism to me. It's a wonderful language that brought the async await system to everyone.

Re: SICP: JavaScript Edition available for pre-order

#72

Post by bmitc »

lkschubert8 wrote: post #69
bmitc wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The most accessible runtime on the planet. In what sense?

If you have a browser on a computer you have a js repl.

That's what I had assumed but wanted to double check since "accessible" is ambiguous. However, it's not all that convincing of an argument. Several languages are installed as easy as a browser is. And loading a local file, such as code included with a book, in the developer console quickly goes beyond accessible.

Re: SICP: JavaScript Edition available for pre-order

#73

Post by gumby »

d3nj4l wrote: post #56
gumby wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know which one I'd rather debug, but which one can a new student get started with faster? They are unlikely to already have a scheme interpreter on their computer.

It won't take longer than 15 minutes to get racket installed, and that's being extremely conservative. If you can't spend 15 minutes getting setup done, why would you finish a dense book on the theory of computation?

The scheme version was aimed at students who might never have touched a computer before.

Why should this book be different, though these days aimed at students who’d only operated a computer before.

Re: SICP: JavaScript Edition available for pre-order

#74

Post by tasogare »

aaomidi wrote: post #71
namelosw wrote: post #67

SICP in Python - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22994976 You can see there's more negativity in this thread compared to the Python one. HN crowd is pretty hostile toward JavaScript. Yet JavaScript is obviously a better choice than Python in terms of SICP Scheme substitute. For example: - JavaScript is arguably a Scheme descendant, or at least have closer blood ties with Scheme than Python. - The Lambda in Pytho…

I've really noticed that people rage that Javascript and npm removed so much of a barrier to tech. Try publishing a dependency for Java. Now try doing it for JS. Everyone was able to do highly concurrent workloads. Something that was extremely difficult before Javascript. It just smells of elitism to me. It's a wonderful language that brought the async await system to everyone.

It's C# that created and popularized async/await, not JS (and it having an already open source implementation at the time, it was available to everyone for free).

Re: SICP: JavaScript Edition available for pre-order

#75

Post by rrdujay »

aaomidi wrote: post #71
namelosw wrote: post #67

SICP in Python - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22994976 You can see there's more negativity in this thread compared to the Python one. HN crowd is pretty hostile toward JavaScript. Yet JavaScript is obviously a better choice than Python in terms of SICP Scheme substitute. For example: - JavaScript is arguably a Scheme descendant, or at least have closer blood ties with Scheme than Python. - The Lambda in Pytho…

I've really noticed that people rage that Javascript and npm removed so much of a barrier to tech. Try publishing a dependency for Java. Now try doing it for JS. Everyone was able to do highly concurrent workloads. Something that was extremely difficult before Javascript. It just smells of elitism to me. It's a wonderful language that brought the async await system to everyone.

You mean it's super hard in java? All they have is maven with hard links into eclipse from my observation.

Npm is light years ahead in execution and usage. Python distribution is.... interesting with eggs & poetry

Re: SICP: JavaScript Edition available for pre-order

#76

Post by Barrin92 »

adamgordonbell wrote: post #49

I got a chance to talk to Hal Abelson and two things I found surprising where: 1) he thought part of SICPs success was due to the calibre of students MIT gets and 2) He though Javascript was a fairly good scheme approximation ( although with too much syntax).

>He though Javascript was a fairly good scheme approximation ( although with too much syntax).

that one isn't too surprising because "putting scheme in the browser" was quite literally what Eich set out to do

"As I’ve often said, and as others at Netscape can confirm, I was recruited to Netscape with the promise of “doing Scheme” in the browser. At least client engineering management including Tom Paquin, Michael Toy, and Rick Schell, along with some guy named Marc Andreessen, were convinced that Netscape should embed a programming language, in source form, in HTML. So it was hardly a case of me selling a “pointy-haired boss” — more the reverse.

Whether that language should be Scheme was an open question, but Scheme was the bait I went for in joining Netscape. Previously, at SGI, Nick Thompson had turned me on to SICP."

https://brendaneich.com/2008/04/popularity/

Re: SICP: JavaScript Edition available for pre-order

#77

Post by aaomidi »

tasogare wrote: post #74
aaomidi wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've really noticed that people rage that Javascript and npm removed so much of a barrier to tech. Try publishing a dependency for Java. Now try doing it for JS. Everyone was able to do highly concurrent workloads. Something that was extremely difficult before Javascript. It just smells of elitism to me. It's a wonderful language that brought the async await system to everyone.

It's C# that created and popularized async/await, not JS (and it having an already open source implementation at the time, it was available to everyone for free).

Based on usage numbers, I'm gonna say it was a mix of both. But JS brought it to the very mainstream.

Re: SICP: JavaScript Edition available for pre-order

#78

Post by wallscratch »

namelosw wrote: post #67

SICP in Python - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22994976 You can see there's more negativity in this thread compared to the Python one. HN crowd is pretty hostile toward JavaScript. Yet JavaScript is obviously a better choice than Python in terms of SICP Scheme substitute. For example: - JavaScript is arguably a Scheme descendant, or at least have closer blood ties with Scheme than Python. - The Lambda in Pytho…

What’s awkward about lambda in python?

Re: SICP: JavaScript Edition available for pre-order

#79

Post by namelosw »

wallscratch wrote: post #78
namelosw wrote: post #67

SICP in Python - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22994976 You can see there's more negativity in this thread compared to the Python one. HN crowd is pretty hostile toward JavaScript. Yet JavaScript is obviously a better choice than Python in terms of SICP Scheme substitute. For example: - JavaScript is arguably a Scheme descendant, or at least have closer blood ties with Scheme than Python. - The Lambda in Pytho…

What’s awkward about lambda in python?

- No multi-line support

- Gets very messy when nested

And SICP is a book about learning computer science by abusing lambdas.

Re: SICP: JavaScript Edition available for pre-order

#80

Post by senkora »

wallscratch wrote: post #78
namelosw wrote: post #67

SICP in Python - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22994976 You can see there's more negativity in this thread compared to the Python one. HN crowd is pretty hostile toward JavaScript. Yet JavaScript is obviously a better choice than Python in terms of SICP Scheme substitute. For example: - JavaScript is arguably a Scheme descendant, or at least have closer blood ties with Scheme than Python. - The Lambda in Pytho…

What’s awkward about lambda in python?

Python is based on mainly on statements rather than expressions, and lambdas can’t have multiple statements, so writing lambdas is different from writing normal Python code.

In a very real sense, there is no idiomatic way to write complex lambdas in Python. What you would do instead is define a named function and pass it in as an argument. This is fine but definitely more complicated.

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