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SICP: The only computer science book worth reading twice? (2010)

(simondobson.org)
460 points pieterr | 1 comments | 16 Nov 24 17:23 UTC | HN request time: 0.305s | source
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alabhyajindal ◴[16 Nov 24 19:46 UTC] No.42158703[source]▶
I really wanted to like SICP but Lisp throws me off. I love Haskell and Standard ML however! Did others have a similar experience? Might be interesting to read a book similar in spirit to SICP but using a different language as a vehicle (No, I don't want to do SICP in JavaScript).
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kccqzy ◴[17 Nov 24 00:22 UTC] No.42160830[source]▶
I don't understand why Lisp throws you off. I only read SICP after I became proficient in Haskell and it is just fine.
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alabhyajindal ◴[17 Nov 24 14:25 UTC] No.42164329[source]▶
I'm not comfortable writing S-expressions. It feels very weird to me. I understand this is not a major issue. I'm hoping I stick with the book the next time I pick it up!
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1. kccqzy ◴[17 Nov 24 18:04 UTC] No.42165698[source]▶
You should try out structured editing. For example paredit in emacs. And you really only need to understand slurp and barf. It really makes writing S-expressions no longer a chore. No more need to manually count parentheses. The parentheses are balanced by construction.