/prog/ - Why is the SICP so good?

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 1:10

After a month or so of going through the SICP, playing with Scheme, and completing all the exercises (most in multiple ways; I want my programs to be short, simple, and pretty), I feel like I'm finally a true LISPer. And I view computer science entirely differently than I did back in CS 101 (dropped out of that due to boredom); if I may make the comparison, I'm Buddha after he starved and wasted away, burning away his physical impurities in the metaphysical sense. The SICP has made me a better person outside of my own CS work, too; I've actually felt inspired to help out members of my off-line community to learn CS, and I've donated ten copies of the Text to the local school district. I hear most public schools have poor libraries. I hope it reaches and transforms others in the way it has me.

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 1:19

burn the SICP

K+R will teach you twice as much in half the time for half the price

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 1:32

I view computer science entirely differently than I did back in CS 101
SICP is CS 101.

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 1:41

>>3

this is what fags actually believe

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 2:33

>>4
No, this is what those of us who took it our first semester in college believe.

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 3:12

>>5
They taught JavaScript at my CS 101. C++ and Java came later.

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 3:14

>>6
sweet. I wanna teach there.

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 4:33

>>4
SICP is CS 101. Prove me wrong.

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 6:17

>>6
they did WHAT?

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 7:48

I'm happy for you OP.
I read K&R instead and now I earn £80,000/year as an embedded software developer. Oh how I wish I'd become ``enlightened'' instead :(((

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 7:57

>>10
I earn £80,000/year as an embedded software developer because I read one CS 101 book instead of another

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 9:42

>>8
I'm sure you had a great intro to Computer Science, but you have to realize that most schools don't go through both functional and imperative programming, data abstraction, streams, and (heck) virtual machines all in the first semester.

At my shitty school, for example, we went through half a semester of Boolean logic, even Karnaugh maps, because they seem to think that bitdiddling is actually that important to the understanding computing, and then followed with a Python tutorial. Fin.

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 10:33

>>10
He makes £110,000/year and didn't read anything.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiririca

“What does a federal congressman do? I really don't know – but if you vote for me, I'll tell ya”
“It can't get any worse, vote Tiririca”
“If elected I promise I will help all Brazilian families... especially mine”

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 12:06

>>12
Boolean algebra is important and it's not just about bitdiddling. Every high level language has and and or. Knowing it well will lead to simpler and less buggy if statements, for loops and recursive procedures. It's also the basis of relational algebra used in designing database schemas and of probability logic used in artificial intelligence.

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 12:21

>>12
If a particular programming course set doesn't teach you x86 assembly as well as two different dialects of Lisp, then it's crap. If it teaches C or C++, then it's fucking shit.

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 12:41

>>15
If you can't learn these by your own, can I call you shit also?

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 12:43

>>16
I have learned them on my own, considering how there aren't any proper programming courses anyway.

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 12:49

>>15
The required programming classes at my university don't teach programming languages at all. Sure, there are programming languages you should know in preparation of a course, but you're expected to learn those on our own or by taking a 0.5 unit self-paced crash course before taking the main course.

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 13:01

>>15
x86 is Jewish shit.

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 13:30

>>19
Fuck off, VIPPER.

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 16:43

>>14
I know the importance of basic propositional logic, thank you. We already had it on the algebra course (pre-calculus, we had a separate discrete math course later on), and it only takes a few weeks anyway. So much emphasis on it could only be because it was thought of as the basis for computing, this coming from a school where the lambda calculus is unheard of. But at least they taught the Chomsky hierarchy later on... even if they don't review the halting problem.

Unfortunately, it seems as if most other schools (even the ``top'' ones) hwew are this retarded.

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 16:44

>>14
s/hwew/here/g

Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 16:57

x86 supremacy

Name: Anonymous 2014-03-12 17:43

>>23
>le kike shill

Name: Anonymous 2014-03-13 23:21

>>22
>le pedophile sage

Why is the SICP so good?

1 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 1:10

2 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 1:19

3 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 1:32

4 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 1:41

5 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 2:33

6 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 3:12

7 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 3:14

8 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 4:33

9 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 6:17

10 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 7:48

11 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 7:57

12 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 9:42

13 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 10:33

14 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 12:06

15 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 12:21

16 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 12:41

17 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 12:43

18 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 12:49

19 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 13:01

20 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 13:30

21 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 16:43

22 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 16:44

23 Name: Anonymous 2012-02-09 16:57

24 Name: Anonymous 2014-03-12 17:43

25 Name: Anonymous 2014-03-13 23:21