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by credit_guy 2260 days ago
Being in lock-down mode, I thought it would be a good time to finish reading (and doing) the "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" that I started many years ago and abandoned. Ever since I read Paul Graham's essays on Lisp, I dreamed that I'd like to be able do build domain specific languages "when I grow up". Life always gets in the way, but I now decided to give Lisp another chance.

And now this. Hm, should I abandon SICP again? Maybe the guy is right that beyond all the grand philosophizing of the amazing power of Lisp there's little substance. On the other hand, I also know the website I'm posting this comment on is built on Lisp. I'm torn.

3 comments

That's not what he's saying at all. He's saying that it may not be the right language for an intro CS course for typical freshmen. One can argue back and forth about that. But if you want to learn deeper concepts about programming that go beyond a typical intro to CS class, SCIP is a great book and Scheme a great language, and I'm sure the author of this article would agree 100%.
Check out Composing Programs for an SICP in Python https://composingprograms.com
Unfortunately SICP isn't really all that suitable for learning Scheme (or Lisp).