Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs is a textbook aiming to teach the principles
of computer programming, such as abstraction in programming, metalinguistic abstraction,
recursion, interpreters, and modular programming. It is widely considered a classic text in
computer science, and is colloquially known as the wizard book, due to the wizard on the
jacket. It was first published in 1985 by MIT Press and written by Massachusetts Institute
of Technology professors Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman, with Julie Sussman. It
was formerly used as the textbook of MIT introductory programming class and at other schools. Before
SICP, the introductory courses were almost always filled with learning the details of
some programming language, while SICP focuses on finding general patterns from specific
problems and building software tools that embody each pattern.
Content Using Scheme, a dialect of the Lisp programming
language, the book explains core computer science concepts.
The program also introduces a practical implementation of the register machine concept, defining
and developing an assembler for such a construct, which is used as a virtual machine for the
implementation of interpreters and compilers in the book, and as a testbed for illustrating
the implementation and effect of modifications to the evaluation mechanism. Working Scheme
systems based on the design described in this book are quite common student projects.
Characters The book uses some fictional characters repeatedly:
Ben Bitdiddle. He considerably predates this class, having been created by Steve Ward for
use in problem sets for its predecessor, 6.031, in the 1970s. He has since appeared in a large
number of other locations, including other classes at MIT and other institutions.
Eva Lu Ator: the evaluator Louis Reasoner: the loose reasoner
Alyssa P. Hacker: a Lisp hacker Cy D. Fect: A "reformed C programmer."
Lem E. Tweakit: an irate user of Alyssa's interval arithmetic, enters p. 96.
License The book is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. Coursework
The book was used as the textbook of MIT's old introductory programming class, 6.001.
This class has been replaced by 6.01, which uses Python. Other schools also made use of
the book as a course textbook. The second edition appeared in 1996.
Reception BYTE recommended SICP "for professional programmers
who are really interested in their profession". The magazine stated that the book was not
easy to read, but that it would expose experienced programmers to both old and new topics.
Influence SICP has been influential in computer science
education, and a number of later books have been inspired by its style.
Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics, another book by Gerald Jay Sussman
that uses Scheme How to Design Programs, which intends to be
a more accessible book for introductory Computer Science, and to address perceived incongruities
in SICP Essentials of Programming Languages, a book
for Programming Languages courses Lisp in Small Pieces, a book full of Scheme
interpreters and compilers References
Further reading A critique of Abelson and Sussman or Why calculating
is better than scheming, United Kingdom: Kent . The Structure and Interpretation of the Computer
Science Curriculum, Brown , a critical view of SICP and rationale for HtDP
External links "SICP", MIT Press, MIT Press .
Abelson; Sussman, SICP Lectures, MIT . "6.001", SICP, MIT, Spring 2007 .
SICP, MIT, Spring 2005 . SICP
Vandyke, Neil, SICP .
SICP, Word press .