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Why MIT switched from Scheme to Python (2009)

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284 points borski | 2 comments | 25 Jul 25 16:38 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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anthk ◴[25 Jul 25 16:47 UTC] No.44685229[source]▶
Scheme it's far easier to grasp. With SICP you basically rewrite a Scheme within a Scheme. And you teach Calculus to the interpreter to solve further problems.

Online SICP: http://sarabander.github.io/sicp/

replies(3): >>44685461 #>>44685687 #>>44685971 #
1. terminalbraid ◴[25 Jul 25 17:43 UTC] No.44685971[source]▶
The official SICP site is here, including the text.

https://mitp-content-server.mit.edu/books/content/sectbyfn/b...

pdf

https://web.mit.edu/6.001/6.037/sicp.pdf

replies(1): >>44688550 #
2. anthk ◴[25 Jul 25 21:13 UTC] No.44688550[source]▶
Yep, and there's a Texinfo version too. With Chicken, 'sudo chicken-install srfi-203 ; sudo chicken-install srfi-216; Emacs, Geiser and this ~/.csirc, you can run SICP exercises on really constrained environments.

~/.csirc

   (import scheme)
   (import (srfi 203))
   (import (srfi 216))
Texinfo version:

https://zv.github.io/sicp-in-texinfo

Run Emacs. Press

   Ctrl-u Ctrl-h i
and choose the sicp.info.gz file.

Then, run:

Alt-x

package-refresh-contents

Alt-x

package-install

geiser-chicken

wait.

Run Alt-x geiser, and if it ask you which Scheme interpreter to run, choose 'chicken'.

Later,

press Ctrl-x f

to choose a file, create a new one called "hello.scm".

Write in that file:

(display "Hello world").

Run Ctrl-c Ctrl-c

and then the Scheme code in that file will be evaluated. To choose the running Chicken interpreter, press

Ctrl-x b

and choose the Geiser buffer.

Run Ctrl-h t for the Emacs tutorial, it will be handy.

If you want the same tutorial in Spanish, Japanese, French...

press

Ctrl-u Ctrl-h t

and just input your language, press [TAB] to autocomplete.

Happy Hacking.