Birbla

Discussion summary

A 1986 video lecture series on SICP is highly regarded for its presentation. Many recommend using Scheme over JavaScript for studying SICP.

What the discussion says

  • The lectures are considered a classic and well-produced.
  • Scheme is recommended for learning SICP due to its simplicity and alignment with the book.
  • JavaScript is seen as less suitable for this purpose.
“Seeing the metacircular evaluator built live is remarkable.”
— tangsoupgallery
“Scheme reads like pseudo-code with parentheses.”
— submeta

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  • Hacker News
  • What could someone interested in systems programming gain from this?
    by xqb64
  • You don't have to do the exercises or follow along with the book. No matter if you are new to the field or have decades of experience: almost everyone would benefit from watching these videos if they haven't already (or done an SICP course).
    by xenadu02
  • I worked through these videos and the full book. Via news groups I organized an in-person study group. What a blast and a big unlock for me. The study group started having attrition about halfway through the book.
    by ozten
  • This is how I learned lisp. I then went on to learn Clojure and built a career around it.
    by j_m_b
  • Cannot recommend these enough. Watch the first one and you'll be hooked
    by bloppe
  • I tried SICP straight from the book once, but I think the lectures are much better and the book acts as a supplemental reference.
    by dirteater_
  • Every programmer should learn LISP. or at least give an earnest attempt to study it. The vast majority of applied programmers only know how to think like C programmers (procedural). LISP is a “beautiful” language in that it is about concepts, not hardware. Totally changed my brain when I worked on a graduate project for a few years at my Alma mater in 1990.
    by sanmarzano
  • If you want to work through SICP, you can use MIT Scheme, but another option is to use Racket or DrRacket, with this add-on package: https://docs.racket-lang.org/sicp-manual/
    by neilv

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