Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - 2nd Edition (MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) by Harold Abelson, Gerald Jay Sussman Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - 2nd Edition (MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)
Book Review: ...
Summary: 1 Stars
If you read books carefully and try to understand their meaning, you'll be frustrated by this text. If you read 'popular' books as a 'trophy' collection activity and don't think about content...this book is for you. It's from MIT..all the prestige you need in one little text...who cares about the actual conent?
Those who do care, stay away. Some of the most fundamentally important material is gathered here and butchered in the most horrific way. I suggest you look at specific books on topics such as hardware design, compilers, etc...this book will only cause pain and won't explain them.
Book Review: ...
Summary: 1 Stars
If you read books carefully and try to understand their meaning, you'll be frustrated by this text. If you read 'popular' books as a 'trophy' collection activity and don't think about content...this book is for you. It's from MIT..all the prestige you need in one little text...who cares about the actual conent?
Those who do care, stay away. Some of the most fundamentally important material is gathered here and butchered in the most horrific way. I suggest you look at specific books on topics such as hardware design, compilers, etc...this book will only cause pain and won't explain them.
Book Review: A classic of computer science
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best introduction to programming ever written. It's not easy, but it will give you a good introduction to some of the fundamental concepts of computer science: procedural and data abstraction, algorithmic complexity, recursion, interpretation, etc. If you want to be a Java hack, buy "Java in 21 Days". But if you want to be a real computer scientist, read this slowly and carefully.Book Review: A great book and a magnificent vocational test
Summary: 5 Stars
SICP is an excellent, perhaps the best, advanced introduction to computer science and programming. It covers topics such as functional abstraction, data abstraction, OOP, program design, constraint programming and logic programming, always from a language design point of view. You will need a decent mathematical background to follow it.If it's such a great textbook, then why half of the reviewers hate it? Elementary: SICP is not just a textbook, it's also a Computer Science aptitude and vocational test. If you read it and like it, then Congratulations! You are a real programmer and computer scientist, with hair on your chest. If you don't like it, then you should be studying something else. Law, mortuary science, whatever, but not CS.
Book Review: A spectrum of ideas, well-presented
Summary: 5 Stars
There seem to be a lot of programmers out there who hate computer science....SICP reminds me a lot of the Feynman Lectures in the physics world; it may not be the best introductory text (except for the best students, who would learn everything anyway), but it is great to turn back to after one has been exposed to some of the ideas. There is certainly a place for books such as this, and I don't mean the last sentence as a criticism. Seeing an elegant presentation of the fundamentals of any field is always pleasant, and it can stir up forgotten ideas and enthusiasm.
I think SICP will also appeal to many scientists, who (1) write terrible programs because they learned FORTRAN from their advisor who learned FORTRAN from his advisor who..., (2) are open-minded enough to change, and (3) won't be intimidated by the (simple and peripheral) mathematical examples in the first couple of chapters.
It is true that the book is slightly quirky. For example, as long as the authors are going to alienate the sort of people who gave them one-star reviews, why not give prominent introductions to the theory of computation, functional programming, and correctness? These topics are addressed, but concepts like Church numerals and the halting problem end up buried in problems and footnotes. On the other hand, it is refreshing to read a book with some personality.
As an added bonus, SICP is a good size and attractively bound and printed.