Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs: JavaScript Edition

by Harold Abelson, Gerald Jay Sussman, Martin Henz (Adapted by), Tobias Wrigstad (Adapted by), Julie Sussman (Contribution by)

Overview

A new version of the classic and widely used text adapted for the JavaScript programming language.

Since the publication of its first edition in 1984 and its second edition in 1996, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP) has influenced computer science curricula around the world. Widely adopted as a textbook, the book has its origins in a popular entry-level computer science course taught by Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman at MIT. SICP introduces the reader to central ideas of computation by establishing a series of mental models for computation. Earlier editions used the programming language Scheme in their program examples. This new version of the second edition has been adapted for JavaScript.
 
The first three chapters of SICP cover programming concepts that are common to all modern high-level programming languages. Chapters four and five, which used Scheme to formulate language processors for Scheme, required significant revision. Chapter four offers new material, in particular an introduction to the notion of program parsing. The evaluator and compiler in chapter five introduce a subtle stack discipline to support return statements (a prominent feature of statement-oriented languages) without sacrificing tail recursion.
 
The JavaScript programs included in the book run in any implementation of the language that complies with the ECMAScript 2020 specification, using the JavaScript package sicp provided by the MIT Press website.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262367622
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	05/03/2022
Series:	MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	640
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Harold Abelson is Class of 1922 Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at MIT. Gerald Jay Sussman is Panasonic Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT. Martin Henz is Associate Professor of Computer Science at the National University of Singapore. Tobias Wrigstad is Professor of Computer Science at Uppsala University.
 

 

Table of Contents

Foreword xiii
Foreword to Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, 1984 xvii
Preface xxi
Prefaces to Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, 1996 & 1984 xxiii
Acknowledgments xxvii
1 Building Abstractions with Functions 1
2 Building Abstractions with Data 69
3 Modularity, Objects, and State 189
4 Metalinguistic Abstraction 317
5 Computing with Register Machines 449
References 565
Index 571
List of Exercises 607

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A classic, meticulously revisited and modernized with talent, pedagogy, and substance. Thank you, Martin, Tobias, and Julie!”
—Olivier Danvy, Yale-NUS College
 
 “When I am asked ‘How can I become a better programmer?,’ I recommend this book.”
—Douglas Crockford, author of How JavaScript Works
 
“How much is a programming book influenced by its programming language? SICP in JavaScript is remarkably fluid, an excellent choice for today’s programmers.”
—Peter Van Roy, Université catholique de Louvain