Why SICP Matters

#1

Post by wskinner » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 11:17 AM UTC

Re: Why SICP Matters

#2

Post by webreac » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 12:35 PM UTC

When I was student, my school has decided to stop using Ada as teaching language. They were hesitating between CAML Light and Scheme. They asked me my feeling because I was one of the rare student to know well both of them. I like both of them, but I choose CAML Light. Scheme has a lot of parenthesis that makes it look very old fashion. Scheme type system was also outdated. Programming in CAML Light was more fun for me, the syntax was simple and pleasant. The currification was cleaner in CAML Light. 20 years latter, CAML Light does not exist anymore, but I still think that my choice was right. My school has choosen CAML Light.

Re: Why SICP Matters

#3

Post by yanatan16 » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 12:37 PM UTC

I didn't discover SICP until after I had graduated from a good CS school. Its clear and away the best programming book I've ever read, even for an experienced developer.

Re: Why SICP Matters

#4

Post by sepeth » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 12:39 PM UTC

SICP videos are also great. The first part of the Lecture 1A, talks about "computer science". From the first moment, we learn that computer science is also not really much about computers.

"...when some field is just getting started and you don't really understand it very well, it's very easy to confuse the essence of what you're doing with the tools that you use..."

"...Well, similarly, I think in the future people will look back and say, yes, those primitives in the 20th century were fiddling around with these gadgets called computers, but really what they were doing is starting to learn how to formalize intuitions about process, how to do things, starting to develop a way to talk precisely about how-to knowledge..."

Re: Why SICP Matters

#5

Post by Spooky23 » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 12:43 PM UTC

I wish my school had used this book. The first year of CS at my school was futzing around with operators and basic data structures. No tie-in to the big picture.

Re: Why SICP Matters

#6

Post by protez » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 12:44 PM UTC

But an average student might need the exposure to other "common" paradigms from C, Python, or Java, before getting introduced to SICP, to "fully appreciate" the power of functional language.

Re: Why SICP Matters

#7

Post by seanmcdirmid » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 12:48 PM UTC

webreac wrote: post #2

When I was student, my school has decided to stop using Ada as teaching language. They were hesitating between CAML Light and Scheme. They asked me my feeling because I was one of the rare student to know well both of them. I like both of them, but I choose CAML Light. Scheme has a lot of parenthesis that makes it look very old fashion. Scheme type system was also outdated. Programming in CAML Light was more fun for…

Was the school in France?

These don't seem like very good reasons to choose one over the other; the choice probably came down to culture.

Re: Why SICP Matters

#8

Post by endgame » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 12:49 PM UTC

webreac wrote: post #2

When I was student, my school has decided to stop using Ada as teaching language. They were hesitating between CAML Light and Scheme. They asked me my feeling because I was one of the rare student to know well both of them. I like both of them, but I choose CAML Light. Scheme has a lot of parenthesis that makes it look very old fashion. Scheme type system was also outdated. Programming in CAML Light was more fun for…

Can you elaborate? Is your school still using CAML Light, or have they moved on to some other language (O'Caml?)? How effective was it as a teaching language?

Re: Why SICP Matters

#9

Post by bru » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 12:52 PM UTC

webreac wrote: post #2

When I was student, my school has decided to stop using Ada as teaching language. They were hesitating between CAML Light and Scheme. They asked me my feeling because I was one of the rare student to know well both of them. I like both of them, but I choose CAML Light. Scheme has a lot of parenthesis that makes it look very old fashion. Scheme type system was also outdated. Programming in CAML Light was more fun for…

Hi,

>CAML Light does not exist anymore

French classes prépa[1] have been using it in the CS course until this year (I have heard it would be dropped in favour of Python next September). So even though there hasn't been any development for the past 10 years[2] it still exists! And then there is OCaml which is still lively.

Even though a CS graduate may say that S-expressions are the simplest syntax possible - not that he's wrong - I'm happy I discovered functional programming through OCaml, whose syntax feels way more natural (to me at least).

1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classe_pr%C3%A9paratoire_aux_gr...

2: at least according to http://caml.inria.fr/caml-light/release.fr.html

Re: Why SICP Matters

#10

Post by minikomi » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 12:55 PM UTC

yanatan16 wrote: post #3

I didn't discover SICP until after I had graduated from a good CS school. Its clear and away the best programming book I've ever read, even for an experienced developer.

I think thats the great thing about SICP and its younger, more spritely cousin The Little Schemer - they're both really good to read.