SICP Study group if anyone is interested

[Chris McGrath]

Hi there,

This may be of interest to some people on this list. We're trying to get an online SICP study group off the ground here [1]. For those that don't know SICP is Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, a book used at MIT to teach computer programming. You can find out some more here [2]. If you're interested in learning more about functional programming you should consider joining in. The rough plan is to watch the video lectures, do exercises from the book, then have a bi-weekly skype meeting to discuss what we've learnt.

[Chris McGrath]

Gah! Hit send to early.

[1] is http://groups.google.com/group/anglo-celt-sicp-study-group
[2] is http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/

Cheers,

Chris

[José Domínguez]

That sounds really interesting. I'm up for it! (time permitting)

thanks Chris!

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[Kevin Noonan]

Hi Chris,

Great idea.

Can I make a suggestion?

Use Clojure, instead of Scheme.

http://sicpinclojure.com/

Excerpt: "Clojure is a “modern” Lisp that runs on the Java Virtual
Machine. Its speed, easy access to Java libraries, and focus on
concurrency make it an appealing language for many applications."

Best jumping-off point on the Web for Clojure:
http://disclojure.org/where-to-start/

Ciao,

Kevin.

[Chris McGrath]

That site has a big sign saying "You should not be here yet".

To me this is about doing the exercises in the book and learning the principles behind them. Don't need to be on the latest lisp hotness for that imho. Anything we learn will not be specific to scheme.

Chris

[Kevin Noonan]

Hi Chris,

Take a look at this comment:
http://sicpinclojure.com/?q=content/current-status#comment-7

This study-group for the book, which includes Jim Weirich, is using Clojure:
http://groups.google.com/group/wizardbookstudy/web/study-groups

They've already converted fourteen sections of the book to Clojure.
http://github.com/deobald/sicp-clojure

And there's already a "Clojure Ireland" group, which might join in:
http://groups.google.com/group/clojure-ireland

Regards,

Kevin.

[Kevin Noonan]

This was the link I meant with the converted exercises from the book:

http://github.com/jakemcc/sicp-study/tree/master/clojure/

[Victor Hugo Germano]

A suggestion:
- maybe we could try to set up a coding dojo in order to apply the
concepts... after a few exercises, might be good to get together and
having a group hands on experience...

To know more about: http://codingdojo.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WhatIsCodingDojo

On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 12:09 PM, Victor Hugo Germano <vict...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm on it... (depending on time, of course)
>
> when should we start?
>
> =)

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Fone: Ireland, Dublin - 0852442485
Email: vict...@gmail.com
Skype: victorhugogermano

[Victor Hugo Germano]

I'm on it... (depending on time, of course)

when should we start?

=)

On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 12:05 PM, Kevin Noonan <kno...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Wesley]

Jim talked about this at the excellent Scottish Ruby Conference this
year too - video is up at: http://video2010.scottishrubyconference.com/

Count me in for the group, again time permitting, sounds like fun.

Wesley

On Jun 4, 12:33 pm, Kevin Noonan <knoo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Chris,
>
> Take a look at this comment:http://sicpinclojure.com/?q=content/current-status#comment-7
>
> This study-group for the book, which includes Jim Weirich, is using Clojure:http://groups.google.com/group/wizardbookstudy/web/study-groups
>

> They've already converted fourteen sections of the book to Clojure.http://github.com/deobald/sicp-clojure

[Chris McGrath]

On 4 Jun 2010, at 12:33, Kevin Noonan wrote:

Hi Chris,

Hi Kevin, thanks for the links. I'm going to forward a link to this thread to our group and suggest we consider Clojure. I'll be against it though for the reasons below :)

  * AFAIK, most of the group has never done a lisp like language in depth before.

  * The videos we'll be watching use Scheme. So to translate we'd have to somehow know the differences between Clojure and Scheme before knowing either language at all.

  * Compare [1] to "Download PLT Scheme, run DrScheme"

Take a look at this comment:
http://sicpinclojure.com/?q=content/current-status#comment-7

There's no way I'd be able to contribute to that book translation to begin with. Figuring out if a problem was due to a bug in it or something I was doing wrong would also be hard.

This study-group for the book, which includes Jim Weirich, is using Clojure:
http://groups.google.com/group/wizardbookstudy/web/study-groups

This is one study group though and Jim has many more years of experience than us (again AFAIK). We're asking Jim for advice anyway, so we can ask what the background experience of that group was and how they found using Clojure.

They've already converted fourteen sections of the book to Clojure.
http://github.com/deobald/sicp-clojure

Again, if a problem comes up it'll be hard to know if it's due to an error in the translation or user error.

And there's already a "Clojure Ireland" group, which might join in:
http://groups.google.com/group/clojure-ireland

Might, might not :) From my position the disadvantages I've outlined above outweigh any potential advantages.

Pragmatically speaking, there's an existing book with existing exercises and and existing environment that will just work. For a new group I think we should use this to start with so we can concentrate on the concepts in the book and keep our cognitive load to a minimum. As we get more experienced we can review our toolset.

Again, thanks for the links though. Even though I'm against the idea right now, perhaps the rest of the list will convince me :)

Cheers,

Chris

[1] http://jakemccrary.com/blog/2009/10/06/setting-up-clojure/

[Chris McGrath]

On 4 Jun 2010, at 12:09, Victor Hugo Germano wrote:

> I'm on it... (depending on time, of course)
>
> when should we start?
>
> =)
>
>

Join the list and help us work that out :)

Cheers,

Chris

[Chris McGrath]

On 4 Jun 2010, at 12:15, Victor Hugo Germano wrote:

> A suggestion:
> - maybe we could try to set up a coding dojo in order to apply the
> concepts... after a few exercises, might be good to get together and
> having a group hands on experience...

The reason for doing it online is that none of us are in the same location. I'm in Northern Ireland, the other three guys who started this are in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

Cheers,

Chris

[Chris McGrath]

On 4 Jun 2010, at 14:04, Wesley wrote:

> Jim talked about this at the excellent Scottish Ruby Conference this
> year too - video is up at: http://video2010.scottishrubyconference.com/
>

I was at the conf, I think that's what planted the seed in our minds :)

> Count me in for the group, again time permitting, sounds like fun.
>

Great, please join the list. The idea of doing it bi-weekly is to make it easier for people to find the time.

Cheers,

Chris

[Kevin Noonan]

Hi Chris, all,

On a side-note, in case anyone gets the impression that Clojure is
difficult to install these days.

On Ubuntu 9.x (or later):

sudo apt-get install rlwrap clojure

On Mac OS X:

Brief instructions here:
http://github.com/citizen428/ClojureX
(You must have Java 1.5 or later installed.)

On Windows:

Download & run "ClojureBox":
http://clojure.bighugh.com/
(Again, you must have Java 1.5 or later installed.)

Ciao,

Kevin.

[Mick]

Count me in!

I've been looking for a reason to dig into list or scheme...

Mick

[Raphael Silvestre Molesim]

I'm in as well!!

2010/6/5 Mick <michae...@gmail.com>

[Denis Hennessy]

Sounds interesting (time permitting). I'm still on the fence about whether to try it in scheme or clojure but I'm in.

/dh