Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - Definition and Overview

Front cover

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP) is a textbook published in 1985 about general computer programming concepts from MIT press written by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professors Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman, with Julie Sussman. It has been used as the textbook for an introductory course in computer programming for students of computer science at MIT and other schools. Now in its second edition (ISBN 0-262-51087-1), it is widely considered a classic. It is also known as the Wizard Book (due to the wizard on the cover), and less commonly, the Purple Book.

Using a dialect of the Lisp programming language known as Scheme, the book explains core computer science concepts, including abstraction, recursion, interpreters and metalinguistic abstraction.

External links

• Official SICP site, including the full text in HTML (http://www-mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/)
• Videos of SICP Lectures by the authors (http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lectures/)