''Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs'' (''SICP'') is a

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

textbook by

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

professors

Harold Abelson Harold Abelson (born April 26, 1947) is an American mathematician and computer scientist. He is a professor of computer science and engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Tec ...

and

Gerald Jay Sussman Gerald Jay Sussman (born February 8, 1947) is the Panasonic Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has been involved in artificial intelligence (AI) research at MIT since 1964. His research ha ...

with Julie Sussman. It is known as the "Wizard Book" in

hacker culture The hacker culture is a subculture of individuals who enjoy—often in collective effort—the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming the limitations of software systems or electronic hardware (mostly digital electronics), ...

. It teaches fundamental principles of

computer programming Computer programming or coding is the composition of sequences of instructions, called computer program, programs, that computers can follow to perform tasks. It involves designing and implementing algorithms, step-by-step specifications of proc ...

, including

recursion Recursion occurs when the definition of a concept or process depends on a simpler or previous version of itself. Recursion is used in a variety of disciplines ranging from linguistics to logic. The most common application of recursion is in m ...

abstraction Abstraction is a process where general rules and concepts are derived from the use and classifying of specific examples, literal (reality, real or Abstract and concrete, concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstraction" ...

modularity Modularity is the degree to which a system's components may be separated and recombined, often with the benefit of flexibility and variety in use. The concept of modularity is used primarily to reduce complexity by breaking a system into varying ...

, and

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Programming languages are described in terms of their Syntax (programming languages), syntax (form) and semantics (computer science), semantics (meaning), usually def ...

design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...

and

implementation Implementation is the realization of an application, execution of a plan, idea, scientific modelling, model, design, specification, Standardization, standard, algorithm, policy, or the Management, administration or management of a process or Goal ...

MIT Press The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...

published the first edition in 1984, and the second edition in 1996. It was used as the textbook for MIT's introductory course in

from 1984 to 2007. SICP focuses on discovering general

patterns A pattern is a regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically repeated li ...

for solving specific problems, and building

software systems A software system is a system of intercommunicating components based on software forming part of a computer system (a combination of hardware and software). It "consists of a number of separate programs, configuration files, which are used to ...

that make use of those patterns. MIT Press published a

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language and core technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. Ninety-nine percent of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior. Web browsers have ...

version of the book in 2022.

Content

The book describes computer science concepts using Scheme, a dialect of

Lisp Lisp (historically LISP, an abbreviation of "list processing") is a family of programming languages with a long history and a distinctive, fully parenthesized Polish notation#Explanation, prefix notation. Originally specified in the late 1950s, ...

. It also uses a virtual

register machine In mathematical logic and theoretical computer science, a register machine is a generic class of abstract machines, analogous to a Turing machine and thus Turing complete. Unlike a Turing machine that uses a tape and head, a register machine u ...

and assembler to implement Lisp

interpreters Interpreting is translation from a spoken or signed language into another language, usually in real time to facilitate live communication. It is distinguished from the translation of a written text, which can be more deliberative and make use o ...

and

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that Translator (computing), translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primaril ...

s. Topics in the books are:

Chapter 1: Building
Abstractions Abstraction is a process where general rules and concepts are derived from the use and classifying of specific examples, literal ( real or concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstraction" is the outcome of this process ...
with Procedures

# The Elements of Programming # Procedures and the Processes They Generate # Formulating Abstractions with Higher-Order Procedures

Chapter 2: Building Abstractions with
Data Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous values that convey information, describing the quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted for ...

# Introduction to Data Abstraction # Hierarchical Data and the Closure Property # Symbolic Data # Multiple Representations for Abstract Data # Systems with Generic Operations

Chapter 3: Modularity, Objects, and
State State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country Nation state, a ...

# Assignment and Local State # The Environment Model of Evaluation # Modeling with Mutable Data # Concurrency: Time Is of the Essence # Streams

Chapter 4:
Metalinguistic Metalinguistics is the branch of linguistics that studies language and its relationship to other cultural behaviors. It is the study of how different parts of speech and communication interact with each other and reflect the way people live and ...
Abstraction

# The Metacircular Evaluator # Variations on a Scheme –

Lazy Evaluation In programming language theory, lazy evaluation, or call-by-need, is an evaluation strategy which delays the evaluation of an Expression (computer science), expression until its value is needed (non-strict evaluation) and which avoids repeated eva ...

# Variations on a Scheme – Nondeterministic Computing #

Logic Programming Logic programming is a programming, database and knowledge representation paradigm based on formal logic. A logic program is a set of sentences in logical form, representing knowledge about some problem domain. Computation is performed by applyin ...

Chapter 5: Computing with
Register Machines Register or registration may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller (musician), Travis Miller ...

# Designing

Register Machines Register or registration may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller (musician), Travis Miller ...

# A Register-Machine Simulator # Storage Allocation and

Garbage Collection Waste collection is a part of the process of waste management. It is the transfer of solid waste from the point of use and disposal to the point of treatment or landfill. Waste collection also includes the curbside collection of recyclable ...

# The Explicit-Control Evaluator # Compilation

Characters

Several humorously-named fictional characters appear in the book: * Alyssa P. Hacker, a Lisp

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals and solves problems by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hackersomeone with knowledge of bug (computing), bugs or exp ...

* Ben Bitdiddle * Cy D. Fect, a "reformed C programmer" * Eva Lu Ator * Lem E. Tweakit * Louis Reasoner, a "loose reasoner"

License

The book is licensed under a

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.

Coursework

The book was used as the textbook for MIT's former introductory programming course, 6.001, from fall 1984 through its last semester, in fall 2007. Other schools also made use of the book as a course textbook.

Reception

Byte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...

'' recommended SICP in 1986 "for professional programmers who are really interested in their profession". The magazine said that the book was not easy to read, but that it would expose experienced programmers to both old and new topics. A review of SICP as an undergraduate textbook by

Philip Wadler Philip Lee Wadler (born April 8, 1956) is a UK-based American computer scientist known for his contributions to programming language design and type theory. He holds the position of Personal Chair of theoretical computer science at the Laborato ...

noted the weaknesses of the Scheme language as an introductory language for a computer science course. Wadler criticized in particular the lack of

pattern matching In computer science, pattern matching is the act of checking a given sequence of tokens for the presence of the constituents of some pattern. In contrast to pattern recognition, the match usually must be exact: "either it will or will not be a ...

, obscuring equational reasoning and making the teaching of proofs harder; the lack of

algebraic data types In computer programming, especially functional programming and type theory, an algebraic data type (ADT) is a kind of composite data type, i.e., a data type formed by combining other types. Two common classes of algebraic types are product type ...

in Scheme and the over-reliance on

cons In computer programming, ( or ) is a fundamental function in most dialects of the Lisp programming language. ''constructs'' memory objects which hold two values or pointers to two values. These objects are referred to as (cons) cells, conses, ...

pairs for both code and data representation, which can confuse beginning students; and the choice of

strict In mathematical writing, the term strict refers to the property of excluding equality and equivalence and often occurs in the context of inequality and monotonic functions. It is often attached to a technical term to indicate that the exclusiv ...

instead of

lazy evaluation In programming language theory, lazy evaluation, or call-by-need, is an evaluation strategy which delays the evaluation of an Expression (computer science), expression until its value is needed (non-strict evaluation) and which avoids repeated eva ...

as the standard evaluation strategy.

Influence

SICP has been influential in computer science education, and several later books have been inspired by its style. * '' Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics (SICM)'', another book that uses Scheme as an instructional element, by Gerald Jay Sussman and Jack Wisdom * '' Software Design for Flexibility'', by Chris Hanson and Gerald Jay Sussman * '' How to Design Programs (HtDP)'', which intends to be a more accessible book for introductory Computer Science, and to address perceived deficiencies in SICP * '' Essentials of Programming Languages (EoPL)'', a book for Programming Languages courses

References

External links

*
Video lectures

Book compiled from TeX source

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. Interactive Version
{{Authority control 1984 non-fiction books 1996 non-fiction books Computer science books Computer programming books Creative Commons-licensed books Massachusetts Institute of Technology Scheme (programming language) Lisp (programming language)

Content

Chapter 1: Building Abstractions Abstraction is a process where general rules and concepts are derived from the use and classifying of specific examples, literal ( real or concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstraction" is the outcome of this process ... with Procedures

Chapter 2: Building Abstractions with Data Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous values that convey information, describing the quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted for ...

Chapter 3: Modularity, Objects, and State State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Chapter 4: Metalinguistic Metalinguistics is the branch of linguistics that studies language and its relationship to other cultural behaviors. It is the study of how different parts of speech and communication interact with each other and reflect the way people live and ... Abstraction

Chapter 5: Computing with Register Machines Register or registration may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller (musician), Travis Miller ...