6.001

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, where it is known as 6.001, and at other schools. The second edition (ISBN 0-262-51087-1) appeared in 1996. Widely considered a classic text in computer science, it is also known as the Wizard Book (there is a wizard on the cover), and less commonly, the Purple Book.
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<education> /siks dub*l oh wun/, /dub*l oh wun/ or rarely /siks dub*l oh fun/ MIT's introductory computer class for majors, known for its intensity. Developed by Gerald Sussman and Hal Abelson, the course is taught in Scheme and introduces recursion, higher-order functions, object-oriented programming and much more. Students who grasp the metacircular interpreter gain entry into the Knights of the Lambda-Calculus. 6.001 has been exported to several other colleges, sometimes successfully. The textbook, "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs", written with Julie Sussman is a classic that can be found on the shelves of many computer scientists, whether they took the course or not. Legendary characters from the class, problem sets, and book include the wise Alyssa P. Hacker, Ben Bitdiddle, Lem E. Tweakit and Eva Lu Ator, the careless Louis Reasoner and Captain Abstraction.
(1994-11-22)