If you’re a beginner in programming and want to learn the fundamentals and principles of computer programming, SICP, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (pdf) – 2nd edition, by authors Hal Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman, is probably the best book you should start your journey with. This book teaches readers the right way to program by implementing the techniques of abstraction and modularity.
Hal Abelson is Professor of Computer Science and Gerald Jay Sussman is Panasonic Professor of Electrical Engineering, both at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). They along with Julie Sussman authored the book SICP, which was first published in 1985; the second edition came out in 1996.
The pdf version of Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs – 2nd edition can be downloaded for free from the link below. You can also buy the book from Amazon following the referral link.
Buy from Amazon: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs – 2nd Edition (MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)
Book Review:
- Title: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
- Author: Harold “Hal” Abelson, Gerald Jay Sussman, Julie Sussman
- Edition: 2nd
- Publisher: The MIT Press
- Pages: 588
- Format: pdf
- Size: 2.8MB
This classic Computer Science textbook aims at teaching readers how to program by exploring the principles of computer programming such as general abstraction, metalinguistic abstraction, modularity, interpreters, and recursion. It is well-renowned as the wizard book, due to the wizard on the book cover.
SICP explores the all-embracing question “What is programing?”. In this book, authors Ableson and Sussman employ their central philosophy – programming is the task of breaking big problems into small ones, analyzing the small problems, and knitting them back together.
A conclusion is drawn that programming, simply put, is a set of data and procedures. Having said this, the authors then explore more relevant questions: “What is data?” and “What is procedure?”. A thorough ride through the book will later leave one learning not only how to program but also how to think about programming.
The book is divided into 5 parts: 1. Building Abstractions with Procedures, 2. Building Abstractions with Data, 3. Modularity, Objects, and State, 4. Metalinguistic Abstraction, and 5. Computing with Register Machines.
From the beginning, SICP focuses on programming taking an integrative path, presenting the principles of programming and backing them up with examples and exercises. It teaches computation processes – recursive and iterative, and shows the best way to use and employ them as per requirement. Abstraction is explored by functional composition.
The example programs in the book are very engaging, vast, and real. They are all useful and well-thought problems that address a variety of topics in an accessible manner. Exercises are the best way to really understand a situation, topic, or subject matter, and SICP proves just that.
For most books, the review is a bell-shaped curve of star ratings; this one has a peak at 1, a peak at 5, and very little in between. How could this be? I think it is because SICP is a very personal message that works only if the reader is at heart a computer scientist (or willing to become one).
— Peter Norvig, Computer Scientist cum Director of Research at Google Inc.
Buy from Amazon: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs – 2nd Edition (MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)
SICP is claimed by many to be one of the best and most influential programming books ever. Reading this classic textbook will not only enlighten you as a programmer but also make you a better one. It’s very unlikely that one who reads SICP will not gain something theoretically and practically important for their programming journey.
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