explain why exactly this book is so worth buying/reading what

>>61368749
ignore that meme. its awful

>what sets it apart from other programming books?

dank memes

>>61368765

ok then why is it awful? what book do you think is better?

>>61368808

why should i read it then

since the tech field moves so quickly, shouldn't this book be wildly out of date? what makes it so good at standing the test of time?

>>61368825
I have no idea. I have never read it. I just posted the pic because I spotted the book last week while watching this vid from last centurt

I think its fascinating that there is such a split between those who love and hate this book. For most books, the review is a bell-shaped curve of star ratings; this one has a peak at 1, a peak at 5, and very little in between. How could this be? I think it is because SICP is a very personal message that works only if the reader is at heart a computer scientist (or willing to become one). So I agree that the book's odds of success are better if you read it after having some experience.

To use an analogy, if SICP were about automobiles, it would be for the person who wants to know how cars work, how they are built, and how one might design fuel-efficient, safe, reliable vehicles for the 21st century. The people who hate SICP are the ones who just want to know how to drive their car on the highway, just like everyone else.

Those who hate SICP think it doesn't deliver enough tips and tricks for the amount of time it takes to read. But if you're like me, you're not looking for one more trick, rather you're looking for a way of synthesizing what you already know, and building a rich framework onto which you can add new learning over a career. That's what SICP has done for me. If you're a thoughtful computer scientist (or want to be one), it will change your life too.


Some of the reviewers complain that SICP doesn't teach the basics of OO design, and so on. In a sense they are right. The book doesn't directly tell you how to design and write an object-oriented program using the subset of object-oriented principles that show up in the syntax of Java or C++.

(cont)

>>61368898

Rather, the book tells you what those principles are, how they came to be selected as worthwhile, how they can be implemented from the ground up, and how a different combination of principles might be more appropriate for some particular problems. This approach requires you to understand the range of possibilities, and to think about trade-offs as you go through the design process. Programming is a craft that is subject to frequent failure: many projects are started and abandoned because the designers do not have the flexibility, experience and understanding to come up with a suitable design and implementation. SICP gives you an approach that will succeed, but it is an approach based on principles and wisdom, not on a checklist. If you don't understand the principles, or if you are the kind of person who wants to be given a cookbook of what to do rather than to think creatively, or if you only want to work on problems that are pretty much like the problem you worked on last time, then this approach will not work for you. There are other approaches that will be more reproducible for a limited range of simple problems, but there is no better way than SICP to learn how to address the truly hard problems.

Donald Knuth says he wrote his books for "the one person in 50 who has this strange way of thinking that makes a programmer". I think the most amazing thing about SICP is that there are so FEW people who hate it: if Knuth were right, then only 1 out of 50 people would be giving this 5 stars, instead of about 25 out of 50. Now, a big part of the explanation is that the audience is self-selected, and is not a representative sample. But I think part of it is because Sussman and Abelson have succeeded grandly in communicating "this strange way of thinking" to (some but not all) people who otherwise would never get there.

>>61368825
the basic principles of computing have not changed since the '30s or even possibly before that.

>>61368898
>>61368909
good read
I've noticed I have some sort of desire to try and design a whole project and have it work out without resorting to outside help other than reference manuals. Nothing big or fancy, just be able to achieve something with the available tools at hand.
But every time I start, I quickly find myself going over to either stackoverflow or other places, even for the dumbest questions. It's also as if I can't show any creativity, I don't know if there's any remedy for that.
If I can't achieve something like this then I really don't feel like being a programmer, other than maybe occasional hobby projects.
I guess it might be time to finally open up that youtube playlist and get the book

it will teach you more about how the world works, it is just pure computation and structure and abstract thinking of computation. after reading it you will think everyone else is dumb as fuck and you will become unintelligible to everyone around you. it is literally pandoras box, i recommend against reading it and just destroying your brain with alcohol and drugs instead.

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>>61368749
>2017
>programming
>book
>not hindi

>>61369065
Maybe you just need practice.

>>61368765
-t brainlet

>>61369782
I definitely do, along with some patience and self-contol

>>61369799
Also, if you're undertaking a completely new project it's highly unlikely that you'll just know how to implement it without looking at how similar projects were built and structured.

>>61368749
>programming books
It isn't a programming book. It will teach you computer science, learning scheme is a by product.
It was used in MIT as an introduction to CS for decades.

>explain why exactly this book is so worth buying/reading
Are you actually interested in computer science? Then buy it
Do you just want to make shitty apps like pajeet, ignore it.

>>61368825
>shouldn't this book be wildly out of date
It's like saying that algebra is out of date.

>>61369789
>-t
>brainlet
Yeah

>>61369789
>-t brainlet
heh, new here?

>>61368898
>>61368909
shut the fuck you, you fucking nerd!

>>61369950
a rare HQ set of posts and this is how you treat them? back to /v/, /g/ is a board for intelligent people.

>>61370057
fuck off, ya nerd. where are your glasses HAHAH

>>61370253
go away chad

>>61370262
imma knock you the fuck out. come to boston you fuckface

>>61370268
sure, just get me a green card.

Read that book and CLRS and you're good to go.

>>61370268
who is imma?

>>61370314
fuck off you terrorist cunt

>>61370323
your dad

>>61370356
<fuck off you terrorist cunt
I'm getting a sense of racism here...

>>61368909
>>61368962
I like programming and plan to be a CS major, but I'm not much of a book-reader as I get bored.

>>61370391
then become one faggot, books are good
I've read maybe 10 books in my entire life and just recently made myself read a programming one and it was a good experience, especially since it gets you to do something and practice, not just mindlessly read

>>61370384
>>61370356
I'm actually Jewish, I'm not a terrorist.

>>61370414
Books are good but I haven't read one in a while. Though I did listen to The Martian on Audible.

>>61370444
You have to go back.

Do i read and watch the lectures at the same time or what?

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>>61368749
8 out of 10 Theravada Buddhists and 9 out of 10 Mahayana Buddhists recommend it as the best path to reach Satori.

>>61370951
how can this be so when mahayana is like buddha lite and SICP is only for the most pure?

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>>61371054
Both traditions honor the Four Noble Truths and Noble Eightfold Path. You have to be more flexible, like a Reed in the wind, but do not deviate from the ultimate goal of Satori. Just like Siddhārtha Gautama found the Middle Way. Bodhisattva Abelson and Bodhisattva Sussman have taught us a shortcut on the path and distilled it in the sacred form of SICP.

>>61370057
It's copypasta of Norvig's review of SICP from Amazon, or Paul Graham, or Jon Carmack I can't remember but it is copypasta (and also a good review).

>>61368749
This is a good book that teaches you abstractions. It's a better read if you can already program, then you get everything they are trying to teach you. If you can't program you're better off doing HtDP program book or it's edx.org copy called 'How to Code' then after a while go and read SICP to fully understand what they're doing.

>>61368749
It was used in the MIT intro to CS courses. That's literally it.

When we still had /tech/
>have you read your SICP today?
was a meme. That's basically it, it also was known thanks to the intro video of
>CS is not about computers nor is it a science
It's a good book but it won't teach you how to code. I do recommend it, it's like an ideology book on how to approach CS.

>>61368825
Because some aspects of the tech field really don't move that quickly, an example of which is programming languages (if you read CS papers you'll see that the theory behind programming languages does move really quickly, but most of these become pet languages and proof of concepts that nobody really uses).

Scheme is just a very very powerful language designed in a really good way; giving rise to some features that a lot of other languages don't have or got just recently. For example: Lambda's, functions as first-class objects, a really solid macro system, lazy-evaluation if you want it (by using streams instead of lists) and much more. SICP will also blur the line between functions and data, and much more. It will introduce you into a really proper way of doing computing which is slowly being rediscovered (Java and C++ got lambdas recently, some languages have a macro-like metaprogramming though never as good, etc.)

>>61368749
It has a wizard on it.