λ - programming

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Anonymous 2015-09-30 06:34:37 No.9994 [View All]

Has anyone worked through SICP completely? How long did it take you? What do you think about it?

55 posts and 11 image replies omitted. Click reply to view.

Anonymous 2015-10-09 02:16:09 No.10330

>>10327
"It's like poetry, it rhymes."

Anonymous 2015-10-09 08:13:33 No.10342

>>10319
Same here.

Anonymous 2015-10-09 10:37:30 No.10346

Can I start it without knowing soykaf about programming aside from some Pascal/python stuff?

Anonymous 2015-10-09 11:55:51 No.10347

>>10346
Absolutely.

Anonymous 2015-10-09 13:41:33 No.10349

>>10346
It's assumed that the reader has no prior programming experience. SICP was a first-year course at MIT.

Anonymous 2015-10-09 15:32:19 No.10351

>>10346
SICP is perhaps the best introduction to programming for someone with no experience

Anonymous 2015-10-09 22:04:29 No.10367

I am obsessed with the book's cover art. I use it as my avatar in almost everything

Anonymous 2015-10-10 15:22:01 No.10397

Am I the only one here that's actually watched the lectures?
No one ever talks about these, but they're equally great.
https://archive.org/details/MIT_Structure_of_Computer_Programs_1986/

Anonymous 2015-10-10 19:12:54 No.10404

I'm thinking of buying SICP and working along with the video lectures. Should I get the 1st edition which will match the lectures perfectly or the 2nd edition which has updated text?

Anonymous 2015-10-10 20:08:55 No.10405

>>10172
I did it with VBA because that all I have at my underemployment. Even hacked together a lambda class and various other object to represent functions.

Anonymous 2015-10-10 22:36:49 No.10411

>>10404
Just get the 2nd one and watch the lectures even if they don't match up 100%,

Anonymous 2015-10-11 00:39:34 No.10419

>>10411

Well the 1st edition is actually cheaper by about $20. Would you still pick your original answer with this knowledge?

Anonymous 2015-10-22 01:58:06 No.10834

Here's a really nice, modernized rendering of SICP in HTML5. Better typography and responsive so it's easy to read on a phone.

https://sarabander.github.io/sicp/html/

Anonymous 2015-10-22 09:47:30 No.10846

http://paste.lisp.org/display/151208/raw

Anonymous 2015-10-22 13:13:04 No.10848

>>10834
>>10834
>>10846
These are wonderful. Thank you.

Anonymous 2015-10-22 13:41:30 No.10850

Here's part one of an article series talking about good computer, programming and math books. Dude seems passionate about his books: http://www.catonmat.net/blog/top-100-books-part-one/

sadly, he's only at part 4 (= 20 titles) and that was quite a while ago. He originally intended to talk about a 100 books

Anonymous 2015-10-22 13:52:37 No.10851

>>10850
oops wrong thread. meant to go into the book one.
>>190

Anonymous 2015-10-24 00:04:27 No.10914

>>9994
The Ackerman function really turned me off of it, didn't touch it since.

Anonymous 2015-10-24 02:41:29 No.10919

>>10914
I too think that's an ugly excercise, or maybe a very enthrilling one way beyond my level.
Skip it. The others are not to bad (except, perhaps for the pascal triangle one)

Anonymous 2015-10-25 20:08:26 No.10965

>>9994
No, but I read 8 chapters of Learn You a Haskell which took me three days.
It was very easy to learn.

Anonymous 2015-10-25 20:56:23 No.10968

Anyone else think How to Design Programs is a better book than SICP?

Anonymous 2015-10-26 13:48:27 No.10994

>>10968
I'm planning on doing that after SICP ^^

>>10965
Uh, the two are completely different kind of books.

Anonymous 2015-10-26 16:23:02 No.11003

>>10994
>Uh, the two are completely different kind of books.
Yeah but it still helps you to get another view on how programming can be done.
It learned me the principles of functional programming... or the basics atleast.

AnonDeveloper 2015-10-27 02:57:27 No.11021

File: 1445914647867.png (676.67 KB, 1280x720, Contest1.png) ImgOps iqdb

Mod on Lainchan /tech/ deleted my thread. Maybe this place is more "chill". I won't spam up the thread with the contest rules which you can find on the VN thread, on the /tech/ page on my home chan. You can also email me for the contest rules if you like.

tl;dr draw some characters and win cash prizes. $10 or $25 depending on the character, and a +$100 Grand Prize for the best artwork.

Anonymous 2015-10-30 16:38:05 No.11188

Making progress. I don't know why people say this book ins't "practical". It's teaching me a lot about abstraction.

Anonymous 2015-10-30 22:44:53 No.11204

File: 1446245093865.png (92.91 KB, 204x546, am_I_kawaii_uguu1.PNG) ImgOps iqdb

>>11021

AnonDeveloper 2015-11-02 01:24:22 No.11327

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>>11204
Very kawaii, but to enter you must email your entry and it must be an original work. Mio Naganohara is from Nichijou, this is a very recognizable existing character.

Please read the contest rules. Contest closes December 31, 2015. If you don't provide a name/address to mail your winnings then you must reply to my email in January 2016 to claim your winnings, otherwise the money will roll over into the 2nd contest.

So far there 60 days left in the Contest. There have been zero entries so far. There is as much as $365 in prizes waiting to be claimed.

Anonymous 2015-11-02 01:39:08 No.11328

SICP is literally a meme book.

Art of Computer Programming is far more informative.

Anonymous 2015-11-02 05:05:15 No.11329

>>11328
being a maym in no way discounts the fact that it's truly great
nor does the existence of other wonderful books
everyone should surly read both

Anonymous 2015-11-02 07:46:02 No.11333

>>10034
I second this statement.

Anonymous 2015-11-02 08:21:51 No.11335

>>11329
The reason it's a meme book is because people still tell others to read it despite getting torn a new one almost 30 years ago.

http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/dat/miranda/wadler87.pdf

Anonymous 2015-11-02 09:58:52 No.11336

>>11335
I think that an advanced type system is likely too complicated for an Intro to CS course. Remember SICP was written to be an introduction to programming. SICP also covers plain imperative programming

Anonymous 2015-11-02 13:03:51 No.11342

>>11335
>opinions.pdf
The actual problems have been fixed in the second edition of SICP, the rest is just Wadler being salty because some electronic engineers were better at teaching programming than mathematicians.

Anonymous 2015-11-03 14:30:26 No.11398

>>11335
>one guy didnt like the book

you are right, that means its useless and the many people that have learned from it and enjoyed it are wrong

Anonymous 2015-11-04 17:35:49 No.11469

I always wanted to read it but I never found a physical copy in italian.

Anonymous 2015-11-04 20:01:10 No.11476

>>11469
There isn't an italian edition of SICP, but you can get an english copy for cheap on the net or just read it online; there are also video lectures on youtube.

Anonymous 2015-11-06 13:16:32 No.11592

do you guys know where can I buy it without euthanizing my wallet?

Anonymous 2015-11-06 14:25:21 No.11596

>>11592
>Why can't I buy a luxury item cheaply?
Come on man, it's free online.

Anonymous 2015-11-06 14:27:12 No.11597

Finished Chapter 1 yesterday. Pretty good, though I had to remember/learn some math. How's the rest of the book compared to it?

Anonymous 2015-11-06 18:20:58 No.11606

>>11592
https://sarabander.github.io/sicp/
It's like 40 USD in eBay, too.

>>11597
It'll blow you away.

Anonymous 2015-11-06 18:31:13 No.11607

>>11597
Chapter's 1 and 2 form their own section. They teach you scheme and basic design. Chapter 3 complicates programming with state, chapter 4 is about designing eval functions to make new languages, and chapter 5 is about assembly or something. I'm not entirely sure about that last one; I've only read up to chapter 4.

Anonymous 2015-11-06 20:08:27 No.11612

>>11021
>>11327
cringe

Anonymous 2015-11-06 20:11:39 No.11613

>>11607
The main theme is compiling.

Anonymous 2015-11-06 23:25:25 No.11620

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>>11327
What about this one?

Anonymous 2015-11-09 17:15:10 No.11772

I took an introduction course to C last semester and realized I'm interesting in programming.
Let's say I dedicate about 5 hours a week towards working through SCIP.
About how long would it take me to finish it?
Is it the right thing for me to do considering my only real experience is that course I took?

Anonymous 2015-11-10 01:16:23 No.11791

>>11772
Eh, you'll probably be done in around a semester's time. It was made for a college course, after all. If that's too long for you, then don't bother.

You really need to watch the lectures, too. I tried working through the exercises without it, and after watching them it's so much easier. But it's time consuming. Around 2 hours for the whole week's lecture (there's 2 a week)

Anonymous 2015-11-10 14:45:27 No.11807

>>11791
Thanks, Anon.
I will try my hardest to keep up.

Anonymous 2015-11-10 17:31:25 No.11819

Orderer it through Abebooks after pondering if it was worth reading and practicing in my situation (archeologist student, wannabe programmer and data scientist enthusiast, no skills in math or advanced programming). I'll see if it's a waste of time. For what I read I enjoyed Learn You a Haskell even if it's kind of useless for the moment (beside being familiar with list related operations).

Anonymous 2015-11-13 16:32:28 No.11946

>>9994
Got through the first four sections this last month. I had borrowed the first edition from the book from my school library, but its deadline ended today so I returned it. I plan to follow the last chapter online. It won't be as comfortable as reading the book, but I don't think it will be that much of a problem.

It was quite enlightening though, especially compared to the babby Java courses I'm enduring right now. It teaches you how to think and develop a plan of attack for different types of problems.

Anonymous 2015-11-14 09:19:35 No.11975

>>11819
It assumes University level maths, but nothing else. I got through it without the best maths knowledge, I had a learn a lot of things by looking them up, but it was fine in the end.