[eliben]

When I started the project, I preferred CL over Scheme. Later, however, I had some experience with PLT Scheme and really liked the programming environment, so I decided to give it a try. I figured that using both languages will help me understand the differences between them better. It was not some serious limitation of CL, in any case.

[AgentConundrum]

Thanks for clarifying, Eli.

As I said in my update, I was apparently badly misremembering a comment on your blog regarding the use of CL.

You've actually inspired me to take up a similar SICP reading/blogging project, though I'm hesitant for two reasons. First is the concern over the depth of the material. I don't have a CS degree and I'm mathematically out of shape (and I never even did a calculus class), so I'm concerned about making it to a certain point and then completely failing to be able to continue on. Second is a concern about copyright and plagiarism. I've never been clear where the line is with regards to the sort of summarizing knowledge of a whole book, since paraphrasing is still plagiarism AFAIK. Less of an issue with SICP, I'm sure, since you ended up with a signed copy, but I'm a very risk-averse individual and like to know exactly where I stand before attempting such a thing.

I'm sure that your blog will be a great resource for me when I do my version of your project, so I'd like to thank you in advance for having blazed the trail for me.

[eliben]

You should by all means do it, because you don't have a CS degree. Don't worry about the math too much - it is all explained there, and whatever isn't you can easily find out. Don't forget that the most important thing here is the learning experience. It may take you longer to complete, but you will learn more in the process.

[Jach]

IANAL. Plagiarism is only relevant in a classroom environment where you aren't doing work in the expected way. Copyright infringement is different. In the case of SICP, the entire book is available online for free, as far as I know the book doesn't contain answers to all of the exercises (so most work you do there is your own), and many of the code snippets are small enough that I don't think they would withstand a copyright claim in court. (It'd be like trying to copyright "for (int i = 0; i < MAX; ++i)".) Even if you blatantly copy out large sections from the ebook for a blog entry, I'm still pretty sure there's a strong fair use claim to be had. (I guess it would be weakened if your blog serves ads.) Cite your source and you'll be alright.

Of course, looking at the actual page is better for solid legal ground http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/ . It's licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ so again you're fine to redistribute and modify if it's non-commercial.

re: Calculus, you could always watch a few videos at Khan Academy. ;) I don't remember needing all that much calculus, but if you don't have a concept of derivatives or integrals then some of the earlier examples of higher order functions will go over your head. You could watch some online lectures here: http://academicearth.org/courses/the-structure-and-interpret... which don't ramp up the difficulty as steeply.

[AgentConundrum]

Right, sorry. `s/plagiarism/copyright infringement/g`. I've been reading a bit too much about education lately, and I guess it snuck in.

I knew SICP was CC-licensed, so I guess it was relatively clear that I'd be in the clear here. I have a sort of end game in mind where I build myself up enough to work through TAOCP as well (ha!), and it's certainly not CC-licensed. I rather enjoy the idea of doing something like this in public, for moral support and random acts of guidance, so it'll become important for me to know where the line is.

And yes, I'm quite familiar with Khan. I had a couple complaints about the site early on and ended up falling out of the work because of it (the main issue specifically was that I was working through the exercise section, and I had to do a geometry section for which there seemed not to be a relevant video, so I got stuck on a given node in the progress graph). The end game for that plan was to get at least through introductory calculus, since it almost feels like my geek card is illegitimate without it. I definitely need to take another run at it.