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The switch occurred while I was at Berkeley and it also made me sad. I loved that course so much I decided to TA for the self-paced version which kept SICP and

The switch occurred while I was at Berkeley and it also made me sad. I loved that course so much I decided to TA for the self-paced version which kept SICP and Scheme. Brian Harvey explained the decision to switch here: "But, as I keep saying, the choice of programming language isn't the main point. I get upset when students, even the students who like 61A, refer to it as "the Scheme course." It's not a course about Scheme! It's a course about programming paradigms. MIT, where SICP was written, no longer includes that course in its lower division core sequence, not because they wanted to change programming languages, but because they changed the entire sequence from courses organized around big groups of ideas to courses organized around application areas: first "let's build and program a robot" and then "let's build and program a cell phone." That's a brave and thoroughgoing attempt to, among other things, attract non-nerds to computer science. To say, as some people do here, "MIT switched from Scheme to Python" completely misses the point of what MIT did; nobody is proposing any change half as profound at Berkeley." [1] [1] https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~bh/61a.html https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~bh/61a.html

Animats 9y ago
That's a brave and thoroughgoing attempt to, among other things, attract non-nerds to computer science. That's Berkeley. Abelson and Sussman once got MIT to trademark "Nerd Pride".[1] MIT still keeps the trademark active. Here's a Nerd Pride button.[2] [1] https://books.google.com/books?id=LJq0JhoElk8C&lpg=PA78&ots=XoEKLE7qe5&dq=%22nerd%20pride%22%20button%20MIT&pg=PA78#v=onepage&q=%22nerd%20pride%22%20button%20MIT&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=LJq0JhoElk8C&lpg=PA78&ots=... [2] http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/E1312 http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/E1312 [2] http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/E1312 http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/E1312
- tmccrmck 9y ago
  1. That looks like an interesting book. Have you read it? 2. I think you are focusing too much on the use of the word "nerd" here. Harvey chose the use of that word, not MIT.
- QML 9y ago
  Hmm. I don't think Berkeley intentionally switched from Scheme to Python to attract so-called "non-nerds"; it was more founded upon a recognition that computer science will become essential in any field, and not to put at a disadvantage any student who wanted to learn but was new to programming. I mean the current enrollment for CS61A is well-over a thousand, the university lacks resources to properly fund the department, and to declare there's a 3.3 GPA minimum (assuming for Letters & Sciences as College of Engineering students get admitted into the major from freshmen admission).

Animats 9y ago

That's a brave and thoroughgoing attempt to, among other things, attract non-nerds to computer science. That's Berkeley. Abelson and Sussman once got MIT to trademark "Nerd Pride".[1] MIT still keeps the trademark active. Here's a Nerd Pride button.[2] [1] https://books.google.com/books?id=LJq0JhoElk8C&lpg=PA78&ots=XoEKLE7qe5&dq=%22nerd%20pride%22%20button%20MIT&pg=PA78#v=onepage&q=%22nerd%20pride%22%20button%20MIT&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=LJq0JhoElk8C&lpg=PA78&ots=... [2] http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/E1312 http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/E1312 [2] http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/E1312 http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/E1312

tmccrmck 9y ago
1. That looks like an interesting book. Have you read it? 2. I think you are focusing too much on the use of the word "nerd" here. Harvey chose the use of that word, not MIT.
QML 9y ago
Hmm. I don't think Berkeley intentionally switched from Scheme to Python to attract so-called "non-nerds"; it was more founded upon a recognition that computer science will become essential in any field, and not to put at a disadvantage any student who wanted to learn but was new to programming. I mean the current enrollment for CS61A is well-over a thousand, the university lacks resources to properly fund the department, and to declare there's a 3.3 GPA minimum (assuming for Letters & Sciences as College of Engineering students get admitted into the major from freshmen admission).