Code from MIT's 1986 SICP video lectures

(github.com)

102 points | by felipap 3 days ago ago

14 comments

  • matheusmoreira 15 minutes ago

    There's also this interesting study about the difficulty and time requirement of SICP's exercises:

    https://lockywolf.wordpress.com/2021/02/08/solving-sicp/

    The math stuff is brutal.

  • 725686 7 hours ago

    If you are into SICP, you would probably like a nicely formatted html version of the book:

    https://sarabander.github.io/sicp/html/index.xhtml#SEC_Conte...

    And also this:

    https://eli.thegreenplace.net/tag/sicp

  • aesbetic 9 hours ago

    In the first lecture, Abelson says Computer Science is neither a science nor is it really about computers. Considering the current ML paradigm, maybe CS has finally earned its name as a science.

    • bmitc 4 hours ago

      What about the current ML paradigm makes it a science?

      • computerfriend an hour ago

        Observing and testing phenomena we don't understand.

        • mcmoor 36 minutes ago

          I guess it's been progressing from being math, to natural science, to social science

    • gjvc 7 hours ago

      quite the opposite

  • tmtvl 8 hours ago

    The SICP video lectures with Gerald Sussman and Harold Abelson got me into Scheme and from there on Lisp. Although now I'm wondering if this would be better as a 'Show HN' submission.

  • vismit2000 2 hours ago

    Most of the code from the book is also available here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13918465

  • hnarayanan 9 hours ago

    This is such a fun class!

  • xdavidliu 8 hours ago

    i watched the lecture series during the pandemic and commented on many of the youtube videos. in at least one instance, a library function is used on the board that is not compatible with the current function signature in mit scheme.

    • ted_dunning an hour ago

      Oh no.

      I suppose it is something to do with the fact that it has been, what, almost 40 years since the lectures?

      The fact that most of the code would still work is a miracle. That wouldn't work for, say, Java (which didn't exist in 1986). Nor C++. Nor Javascript (also not there back then). Fortran and C might be able to pull it off (but barely).

      Remember, we didn't have computers worth the name back then. Shoot, we didn't even have dirt yet, just rocks.

  • carverauto 4 hours ago

    would be better if you could just use AI to re-do those particular scenes in the video series..