4 ms·

I think the Scheme version of SICP will live on outside of academia and CS undergrad studies. I'm using SICP for self-learning and I had the choice of Scheme,

I think the Scheme version of SICP will live on outside of academia and CS undergrad studies. I'm using SICP for self-learning and I had the choice of Scheme, JS, or Python. I still chose Scheme. This is because I figured Scheme would offer something those other languages didn't since Scheme is the original language of the book and Scheme is just "different" than other languages. It forces you to think differently about programming. I'm glad I chose Scheme. SICP with Scheme is the best choice imo since Scheme most clearly illustrates the lessons of the book.

Lyngbakr 3y ago
What's deterring me from pulling the trigger on the Scheme version is the price. CAD$87 seems a bit steep for a paperback edition that's almost 30 years old. The JavaScript version is CAD$20 cheaper.
- bamfly 3y ago
  Seeing a lot of $25-45 (USD) used price. Used books are awesome. I have north of 500 books and I doubt more than 50 were purchased new. Only that many because some of my relatives want Christmas and birthday wishlists every year, but won't shop anywhere but Amazon and think it's weird to buy someone a used book as a gift (I'd rather have 2-3x as many books for the same money, but hey, I'm not the one paying, so whatever, I guess).
  - Lyngbakr 3y ago
    I ended up at Alibris. CAD$45 + CAD$15 shipping for 'very good' condition.
  - whartung 3y ago
    SICP, as a book, is very nice. It's a great size, not too big, light and nimble to carry around. Many books, notably text books, are pretty big and ungainly. But SICP is just a really nice package. (Mind, I have not seen the paperback, I have a hardback from mutter mumble years ago.)
- Jtsummers 3y ago
  Fortunately it's also freely available online. But if you know anyone in the US, you can get it a lot cheaper (though still paperback): https://www.amazon.com/Structure-Interpretation-Computer-Programs-Engineering/dp/0262510871/ https://www.amazon.com/Structure-Interpretation-Computer-Pro... Even having them ship it to you will probably be cheaper than that CAD price. It's unfortunate the price has shot up so much, I guess I'll be taking very good care of my hardback edition. https://mitp-content-server.mit.edu/books/content/sectbyfn/books_pres_0/6515/sicp.zip/index.html https://mitp-content-server.mit.edu/books/content/sectbyfn/b...
linguae 3y ago
I actually used SICP when teaching a junior-level course on programming language principles and paradigms at San Jose State University, where the introductory language is Java. My students programmed largely in Scheme and Prolog, and they also got exposure to Haskell, Smalltalk, and Common Lisp. I still believe there is room for SICP in the CS curriculum. While as an introductory language SICP and Scheme may lose out to more commercially popular languages like Python and Java, I still believe that eventually students should be exposed to Scheme as an introduction to functional programming and to demonstrate a minimal, highly flexible language as a vehicle for teaching programming language design and implementation. Then eventually the students can be introduced to the world of statically-typed functional programming languages like the ML family and Haskell.

Lyngbakr 3y ago

What's deterring me from pulling the trigger on the Scheme version is the price. CAD$87 seems a bit steep for a paperback edition that's almost 30 years old. The JavaScript version is CAD$20 cheaper.

bamfly 3y ago
Seeing a lot of $25-45 (USD) used price. Used books are awesome. I have north of 500 books and I doubt more than 50 were purchased new. Only that many because some of my relatives want Christmas and birthday wishlists every year, but won't shop anywhere but Amazon and think it's weird to buy someone a used book as a gift (I'd rather have 2-3x as many books for the same money, but hey, I'm not the one paying, so whatever, I guess).
- Lyngbakr 3y ago
  I ended up at Alibris. CAD$45 + CAD$15 shipping for 'very good' condition.
- whartung 3y ago
  SICP, as a book, is very nice. It's a great size, not too big, light and nimble to carry around. Many books, notably text books, are pretty big and ungainly. But SICP is just a really nice package. (Mind, I have not seen the paperback, I have a hardback from mutter mumble years ago.)
Jtsummers 3y ago
Fortunately it's also freely available online. But if you know anyone in the US, you can get it a lot cheaper (though still paperback): https://www.amazon.com/Structure-Interpretation-Computer-Programs-Engineering/dp/0262510871/ https://www.amazon.com/Structure-Interpretation-Computer-Pro... Even having them ship it to you will probably be cheaper than that CAD price. It's unfortunate the price has shot up so much, I guess I'll be taking very good care of my hardback edition. https://mitp-content-server.mit.edu/books/content/sectbyfn/books_pres_0/6515/sicp.zip/index.html https://mitp-content-server.mit.edu/books/content/sectbyfn/b...

linguae 3y ago

I actually used SICP when teaching a junior-level course on programming language principles and paradigms at San Jose State University, where the introductory language is Java. My students programmed largely in Scheme and Prolog, and they also got exposure to Haskell, Smalltalk, and Common Lisp. I still believe there is room for SICP in the CS curriculum. While as an introductory language SICP and Scheme may lose out to more commercially popular languages like Python and Java, I still believe that eventually students should be exposed to Scheme as an introduction to functional programming and to demonstrate a minimal, highly flexible language as a vehicle for teaching programming language design and implementation. Then eventually the students can be introduced to the world of statically-typed functional programming languages like the ML family and Haskell.