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I'm currently reading SICP (the original one). Even though it's LISP instead of Python, the syllabus seems to be very implementation-agnostic. Tail recursion op
by babarock 15y ago
I'm currently reading SICP (the original one). Even though it's LISP instead of Python, the syllabus seems to be very implementation-agnostic. Tail recursion optimization is nice and comes in handy, but I don't think it matters much in the choice of a language to teach this course.
Focus is naturally put on how a language looks on paper, more than how it executes on the machine.
My 2c.
- tikhonj 15y agoI remember the text--and the old course--actually spent a good bit of time talking about proper tail calls and "iteration" vs "recursion". We talked about how the code behaves differently--e.g. space usage--and about how to identify the two types. Also, it's the Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs; naturally, the first bit talks about how programs look (structure), but the second bit (mainly chapters 4 and 5, if I remember correctly) talks about exactly that: how to execute code on the machine. The last chapter, in fact, introduces a register-based language not unlike assembly.