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Devine Lu Linvega

@gosha I'd move SICP all the way at the top.

15 January at 21:54 | Wall-to-wall | Open on merveilles.town
10 comments
Gosha
Devine Lu Linvega

@gosha So SICP will give you the tools to approach the Little Schemer and a mindset for it, but not so much the other way around. The little schemer is more like direct problem solving, which is great, but you want to have the technique from SICP to get into it. As for ANSI Common Lisp, it's technical and dry and that could go way down. If you can find a copy of Land Of Lisp, I'd put at as 0.

15 January at 21:59 | Open on merveilles.town
Gosha

@neauoire That's very interesting, thank you! My thinking was that The Little Schemer might be more approachable than SICP and that I could use the momentum from it for tackling the bigger book. Might have to revisit that assumption.

The reason ANSI Common Lisp is first is that I had already started on it before I made this plan, so I'm going to try to finish first (and somehow I actually don't find it super dry? I like the way it explains things, and the exercises).

I do have a copy of Land of Lisp (first Lisp book I bought a few years back!) but it somehow didn't work for me. Might have to revisit.

@neauoire That's very interesting, thank you! My thinking was that The Little Schemer might be more approachable than SICP and that I could use the momentum from it for tackling the bigger book. Might have to revisit that assumption.

The reason ANSI Common Lisp is first is that I had already started on it before I made this plan, so I'm going to try to finish first (and somehow I actually don't find it super dry? I like the way it explains things, and the exercises).

15 January at 22:04 | Open on merveilles.town
Devine Lu Linvega

@gosha It's good that you've got a good collection so you can jump around between them.

I read SCIP every second year, and each time I find new interesting bits that I've missed. It's a good one to read and re-read. It's approachable, but it's dense.

Have fun in Lisp world! ✊

15 January at 22:08 | Open on merveilles.town
Gosha

@neauoire Thank you! It's reassuring to know that SICP is approachable, feels a bit daunting at first glance.

15 January at 22:15 | Open on merveilles.town
Anders Conbere

@gosha @neauoire I find the later half of SICP gets a little in the math weeds for my very practically oriented engineer brain (says the person with a degree in algebras, but we all make mistakes when young!).

Alternatively I find little scheme an absolute joy of a puzzle, but also not super practical.

Is there a good lisp book that’s more like “how to design computer programs”?

15 January at 22:18 | Open on merveilles.town
Alastair M. D. Touw

@gosha @neauoire I also found SICP to be a bit daunting at first, mostly due to all the mathematically-themed problems (MIT students, eh?). The recorded lectures from 1986 helped me get through some of the material. They're available on MIT's OpenCourseWare. ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-001-stru

16 January at 14:50 | Open on mastodon.social
Jack Rusher

@gosha @neauoire SICP is the most significant of these texts, and you should not only read it but also — crucially — do the exercises. The patterns you learn in doing this will come up repeatedly for as long as you continue to make software.

16 January at 10:57 | Open on berlin.social
Gosha

@jack @neauoire That's a strong endorsement! Yes, I think it's pretty much pointless to read this kind of book without doing the exercises. I shall prioritise SICP then!

16 January at 11:11 | Open on merveilles.town
Alex Schroeder

@gosha @jack @neauoire When I read it years ago, I did not do the exercises and my understanding faltered at the end. 😥

16 January at 11:25 | Open on social.alexschroeder.ch
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