M.I.T. Lisp Videos

[danbaron]

There is a book, "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs", by two of the top computer science professors at M.I.T. (The Massachusetts Institute of Technology - the Number 1 American technological university), Harold Abelson, and Gerald Sussman. The first edition was published in 1984, and the second edition was published in 1996.

The book teaches deep basic concepts of computer science. It uses Lisp (actually Scheme) as the language to express these concepts.

The material of the book, initially taught by Abelson and Sussman, was a required course (6.001) for all undergraduates at M.I.T. majoring in electrical engineering and computer science, beginning in 1980. The course was phased out beginning in 2008, and has been replaced by courses using Python.

http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/1840
http://danweinreb.org/blog/why-did-m...heme-to-python
http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/...an_era_1.shtml

In 1986, Abelson and Sussman gave a course based on the book, to some Hewlett-Packard employees. The course consists of 20 lectures (in a classroom, writing on a blackboard), which were videotaped by Hewlett-Packard.

Abelson and Sussman never appear together in the lectures, they basically alternate lecturing. Their personalities complement each other, they make a good combination.

(Incidentally, Abelson and Sussman are both still teaching at M.I.T.)

Johan (jack) sent me a little hard drive containing all 20 lectures (29 GB). I copied the lectures to my computer, and sent the drive back to him. So far, I have viewed the first four lectures (approx 4.5 hours). They are very interesting, and along with teaching the concepts, they demonstrate the expressive power of Scheme.

The videos can be downloaded for free:

http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/clas...sman-lectures/

The book is available online for free:

http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html

And, the book is available at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/026...pf_rd_i=283155

I don't think I can overstate how enlightening and entertaining the videos are. One of the best things about them is that, while communicating and demonstrating complex ideas, these two very smart guys are funny, and talk like regular people - that makes a big difference.

(I never watched videos on my computer before, so I never realized how amazingly big (in bytes) they are.)