Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

"Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" ("SICP") is a textbook published in 1985 about general computer programming concepts from MIT Press written by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professors Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman, with Julie Sussman. It has been used as the textbook for an introductory course in computer programming for students of computer science at MIT, where it is known as 6.001, and at other schools. The second edition (ISBN 0-262-51087-1) appeared in 1996. Widely considered a classic text in computer science, it is also known as the Wizard Book (there is a wizard on the cover), and less commonly, the Purple Book.

Using a dialect of the Lisp programming language known as Scheme, the book explains core computer science concepts, including abstraction, recursion, interpreters and metalinguistic abstraction.

The program also introduces a practical implementation of the register machine concept, defining and developing an assembler for such a construct, which is used as a virtual machine for the implementation of interpreters and compilers in the book, and as a testbed for illustrating the implementation and effect of modifications to the evaluation mechanism. Working Scheme systems based on the design described in this book are quite common student projects.

See also

SICP has been influential in computer science education, and a number of later books have been inspired by its style.

* "Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics (SICM)", another book by Gerald Jay Sussman that uses Scheme
* "How to Design Programs (HtDP)", which intends to be a more accessible book for introductory Computer Science, and to address perceived incongruities in SICP (see references below)
* "Essentials of Programming Languages (EoPL)" is a book for Programming Languages courses
* "Lisp in Small Pieces (LiSP)", a book full of Scheme interpreters and compilers
* "Simply Scheme" was written as a "prequel" to SICP
* "Concrete Abstractions" has more examples and assumes less math than SICP and has "plenty of echos [sic] " of SICP (out of print but freely available online [http://gustavus.edu/+max/concrete-abstractions.html] )

References

* [http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/dat/miranda/wadler87.pdf A critique of Abelson and Sussman - or - Why calculating is better than scheming]
* [http://www.cs.brown.edu/~sk/Publications/Papers/Published/fffk-htdp-vs-sicp-journal/paper.pdf The Structure and Interpretation of the Computer Science Curriculum] , a critical view of SICP and rationale for HtDP

External links

* [http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/ Official SICP site, including the full text in HTML]
* [http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lectures/ 1986 Videos of SICP Lectures by the authors]
* [http://sicp.csail.mit.edu/ Official 6.001 site] (an MIT course that goes by the same name as the book)
* [http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-Science/6-001Spring-2005/CourseHome/ The MIT Open Courseware version of the SICP course]
* [http://www.codepoetics.com/wiki/index.php?title=Topics:SICP_in_other_languages SICP in other languages] The examples from SICP presented in a variety of languages on code poetics (the semi-official site for Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming)
* [http://sicp.org.ua SICP Wiki] (solutions and discussion of exercises from the book)
* [http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/ThePerilsofJavaSchools.html The Perils of JavaSchools] Joel Spolsky's criticism of Java-based CS programs which includes his recommendation and discussion of SICP.