4 ms·

MIT Lisp lecture from '86. wow.

43 points by gregp 19y ago

aston 19y ago
Gerry Sussman... Good piece of trivia: In addition to creating the class, he taught the last (ever) offering of 6.001 last term at MIT. Another piece of trivia: Hal Abelson, the co-creator, was one of the big guys being 6.001's replacement (now in Python).
- kflasch 19y ago
  With all of the excitement I see online about SICP and Lisp/Scheme, do you (or anyone else) know why they are transitioning away from the book and Scheme?
  - aston 19y ago
    You may have missed the other excitement online about schools changing their computer science programs to make them more attractive to students. MIT's not really ratcheting down the difficulty, but starting off everyone in Scheme was really off-putting to a number of students. The new intro classes are in Python, which you could argue has the immediate benefit of being used in the world outside of MIT. They're also now more focused on learning while working towards project-style goals (like building a robot) instead of towards academic goals (like getting Scheme to do OOP). Personally, I loved 6.001, but I'm the first to admit it was not for everyone, even people who could become great coders.
    - jimbokun 19y ago
      "The new intro classes are in Python, which you could argue has the immediate benefit of being used in the world outside of MIT." Yep. They can tell incoming freshmen they can use Python when they get a job at Google. Something that was not true of Scheme.
tlrobinson 19y ago
The whole series of SICP lectures is online: http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lectures/ http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lec... They're pretty awesome.
- Hexstream 19y ago
  If I only read the book and don't watch the lectures will I be missing much?
  - kmt 19y ago
    It's entertaining to watch them.
sanj 19y ago
Whatever happened to the Java years of 6.001? Anyone here take them? I still look back fondly on how '001 blew my mind lecture after lecture.
- mdakin 19y ago
  I took 6.001 in the spring of 1997 and we did the simple "Decaf Java" interpreter (in Scheme). Decaf Java is an s-exp representation of a Java program's parse tree. It is foggy and distant now but I believe we did do a problem set in actual Java and then later in the semester after doing the Scheme in Scheme metacircular evaluator we did the Decaf Java interpreter. I don't have any other 6.001 experience to compare it to but I loved the version I took.
brlewis 19y ago
I took 6.001 in Spring '87. I loved it, aside from the slow computers in the lab. I pulled an all-nighter on a Saturday for a problem set not due until Thursday so as to avoid the crowds. After the class was over I didn't use Scheme for another 10 years, but did everything in C. Scheme was just too slow in 1987. Both the language implementations and the hardware have come a long way. I use Scheme all the time now, and there are numerous popular languages, notably PHP and Ruby, that are slower than Scheme today.
mrtron 19y ago
Imagine being able to re-watch your lectures online when studying for an exam...that would be great. It is fantastic that such lectures are being put online for the use of anyone.
- luccastera 19y ago
  At Georgia Tech, they filmed a lot of lectures and you can go back to the library and watch the tapes there. I found it to be one of the best ways to study for an exam. It's funny how the second time you watch a lecture, it all seems so easy to understand.
- mcxx 19y ago
  Well, it's very common at my university (Faculty of Information Technology, Brno university of technology: http://www.fit.vutbr.cz http://www.fit.vutbr.cz). We're in the 21st century after all. Lectures are streamed in real-time and also recorded and published later.
  - mrtron 19y ago
    Us old folk didn't have the luxury :) We had barely adequate course notes, sometimes, and thats the way we liked it! The technology of today is inspiring in the way it can distribute highly valuable information and education to the masses.
- kmt 19y ago
  Imagine being unprivileged enough to be born in a third-world country and not even have a chance to pay your application fee for higher education. If you're bright enough and have Internet access you can still learn from the best and maybe prepare yourself and earn a scholarship in the future.
  - eru 19y ago
    You can take a very broad definiton of 'third-world country' and this is still true.
- jimbokun 19y ago
anaphoric 19y ago
Nice lecture... I am sending it on to my students. But did anyone get a load of that old lisp machine? You could just feel how sluggish it must have been :-) 20 years on and things are much snappier! Thanks Intel and AMD!
kmt 19y ago
It surprises me that people didn't know about these lectures already (of course I realize there's always a first time). They are considered classic and anyone interested in lisp (and programming in general) should watch them.
__ 19y ago
The book that goes with this course, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, is excellent. It's available online: http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html
iamwil 19y ago
I was surprised to see the equivalent of a powerpoint in '86. It's weird to see the same ideas that we have now, but implemented in an older technology. Kinda like when you watch the mother of all demos. I can see why old-timers think nothing's changed in the past couple decades sometimes.
ptn 19y ago
All the Intro to CS classes start the same: the teacher writes COMPUTER SCIENCE in the board and then says 'this is not a science and it is not about computers' and crosses them out.
- pchristensen 19y ago
  Where do you think it came from?
  - eru 19y ago
    Murray's Rule: Any country with "democratic" in the title isn't. The same is true of 'sciences'.

43 points by gregp 19y ago

aston 19y ago

Gerry Sussman... Good piece of trivia: In addition to creating the class, he taught the last (ever) offering of 6.001 last term at MIT. Another piece of trivia: Hal Abelson, the co-creator, was one of the big guys being 6.001's replacement (now in Python).

kflasch 19y ago
With all of the excitement I see online about SICP and Lisp/Scheme, do you (or anyone else) know why they are transitioning away from the book and Scheme?
- aston 19y ago
  You may have missed the other excitement online about schools changing their computer science programs to make them more attractive to students. MIT's not really ratcheting down the difficulty, but starting off everyone in Scheme was really off-putting to a number of students. The new intro classes are in Python, which you could argue has the immediate benefit of being used in the world outside of MIT. They're also now more focused on learning while working towards project-style goals (like building a robot) instead of towards academic goals (like getting Scheme to do OOP). Personally, I loved 6.001, but I'm the first to admit it was not for everyone, even people who could become great coders.
  - jimbokun 19y ago
    "The new intro classes are in Python, which you could argue has the immediate benefit of being used in the world outside of MIT." Yep. They can tell incoming freshmen they can use Python when they get a job at Google. Something that was not true of Scheme.

tlrobinson 19y ago

The whole series of SICP lectures is online: http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lectures/ http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lec... They're pretty awesome.

Hexstream 19y ago
If I only read the book and don't watch the lectures will I be missing much?
- kmt 19y ago
  It's entertaining to watch them.

sanj 19y ago

Whatever happened to the Java years of 6.001? Anyone here take them? I still look back fondly on how '001 blew my mind lecture after lecture.

mdakin 19y ago
I took 6.001 in the spring of 1997 and we did the simple "Decaf Java" interpreter (in Scheme). Decaf Java is an s-exp representation of a Java program's parse tree. It is foggy and distant now but I believe we did do a problem set in actual Java and then later in the semester after doing the Scheme in Scheme metacircular evaluator we did the Decaf Java interpreter. I don't have any other 6.001 experience to compare it to but I loved the version I took.

brlewis 19y ago

I took 6.001 in Spring '87. I loved it, aside from the slow computers in the lab. I pulled an all-nighter on a Saturday for a problem set not due until Thursday so as to avoid the crowds. After the class was over I didn't use Scheme for another 10 years, but did everything in C. Scheme was just too slow in 1987. Both the language implementations and the hardware have come a long way. I use Scheme all the time now, and there are numerous popular languages, notably PHP and Ruby, that are slower than Scheme today.

mrtron 19y ago

Imagine being able to re-watch your lectures online when studying for an exam...that would be great. It is fantastic that such lectures are being put online for the use of anyone.

luccastera 19y ago
At Georgia Tech, they filmed a lot of lectures and you can go back to the library and watch the tapes there. I found it to be one of the best ways to study for an exam. It's funny how the second time you watch a lecture, it all seems so easy to understand.
mcxx 19y ago
Well, it's very common at my university (Faculty of Information Technology, Brno university of technology: http://www.fit.vutbr.cz http://www.fit.vutbr.cz). We're in the 21st century after all. Lectures are streamed in real-time and also recorded and published later.
- mrtron 19y ago
  Us old folk didn't have the luxury :) We had barely adequate course notes, sometimes, and thats the way we liked it! The technology of today is inspiring in the way it can distribute highly valuable information and education to the masses.
kmt 19y ago
Imagine being unprivileged enough to be born in a third-world country and not even have a chance to pay your application fee for higher education. If you're bright enough and have Internet access you can still learn from the best and maybe prepare yourself and earn a scholarship in the future.
- eru 19y ago
  You can take a very broad definiton of 'third-world country' and this is still true.
jimbokun 19y ago

anaphoric 19y ago

Nice lecture... I am sending it on to my students. But did anyone get a load of that old lisp machine? You could just feel how sluggish it must have been :-) 20 years on and things are much snappier! Thanks Intel and AMD!

kmt 19y ago

It surprises me that people didn't know about these lectures already (of course I realize there's always a first time). They are considered classic and anyone interested in lisp (and programming in general) should watch them.

__ 19y ago

The book that goes with this course, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, is excellent. It's available online: http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html

iamwil 19y ago

I was surprised to see the equivalent of a powerpoint in '86. It's weird to see the same ideas that we have now, but implemented in an older technology. Kinda like when you watch the mother of all demos. I can see why old-timers think nothing's changed in the past couple decades sometimes.

ptn 19y ago

All the Intro to CS classes start the same: the teacher writes COMPUTER SCIENCE in the board and then says 'this is not a science and it is not about computers' and crosses them out.

pchristensen 19y ago
Where do you think it came from?
- eru 19y ago
  Murray's Rule: Any country with "democratic" in the title isn't. The same is true of 'sciences'.