Code from MIT's 1986 SICP video lectures

136 pointsposted 4 days ago
by felipap

19 Comments

725686

14 hours ago

If you are into SICP, you would probably like a nicely formatted html version of the book:

https://sarabander.github.io/sicp/html/index.xhtml#SEC_Conte...

And also this:

https://eli.thegreenplace.net/tag/sicp

aesbetic

16 hours ago

In the first lecture, Abelson says Computer Science is neither a science nor is it really about computers. Considering the current ML paradigm, maybe CS has finally earned its name as a science.

postexitus

an hour ago

It is one of the most memorable first lectures in the history of Computer Science.

bmitc

12 hours ago

What about the current ML paradigm makes it a science?

computerfriend

9 hours ago

Observing and testing phenomena we don't understand.

mcmoor

8 hours ago

I guess it's been progressing from being math, to natural science, to social science

gjvc

14 hours ago

quite the opposite

tmtvl

15 hours ago

The SICP video lectures with Gerald Sussman and Harold Abelson got me into Scheme and from there on Lisp. Although now I'm wondering if this would be better as a 'Show HN' submission.

xdavidliu

15 hours ago

i watched the lecture series during the pandemic and commented on many of the youtube videos. in at least one instance, a library function is used on the board that is not compatible with the current function signature in mit scheme.

ted_dunning

9 hours ago

Oh no.

I suppose it is something to do with the fact that it has been, what, almost 40 years since the lectures?

The fact that most of the code would still work is a miracle. That wouldn't work for, say, Java (which didn't exist in 1986). Nor C++. Nor Javascript (also not there back then). Fortran and C might be able to pull it off (but barely).

Remember, we didn't have computers worth the name back then. Shoot, we didn't even have dirt yet, just rocks.

carverauto

11 hours ago

would be better if you could just use AI to re-do those particular scenes in the video series..

so-cal-schemer

5 hours ago

I'd been hoping to do just this, but don't quite have the resources.

lgas

5 hours ago

why can't you?