/sicp-code

Digitized code from MIT's 1986 SICP video lectures.

Primary LanguageSchemeMIT LicenseMIT

Code in the 1986's MIT SICP lectures

Lectures by Gerry Sussman and Hal Abelson

Motivation

MIT lectures on Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, as taught in 1986 by Gerald Sussman and Harold Abelson, are available online in youtube and MIT OCW's website. The videos are available in 240p/360p: very poor quality for visualizing the code in the slides. In addition to that, the camera won't fixate on the board for long, making it extremely difficult to follow.

This is a digitized version of the code featured in the lectures.

This project's intent is to make the lectures' code and content readable (unlike the slide below) and available in digital format.

Unreadable Slide

Files Syntax and Notation

I tried to maintain consistency of notation, comments and indentation throughout the lectures. Much of the original indentation on the slides was maintained, except for when I was able to improve readability by changing it. Lecture breaks are also noted.

Every SLIDE, TERMINAL or BOARD content is marked with the time of appearance. E.g.

;# SLIDE 0:00:00
    ... slide content
;# END SLIDE

Notes and Observations

  • I have added comments and remarks throughout the code to help comprehension.
  • Though all files have extension .scm, their content represent a literal transcription of the slides, some of which isn't code. They're expected to fail to compile in all Scheme interpreters.
  • I have fixed the code on a few, rare occasions. In all of them I've noted the correction using a colon followed by an exclamation mark. Notice that ';!' was also used, once or twice, in the lecture slides.

A slide might have been ommited because

  • it's clearly readable
  • it's not code
  • its content isn't "textable"

Feel free to create an issue whenever you spot errors in the transcription.

Things left to do:

  • Standardize syntax and style across the transcription files.

Useful Links