I had never I've had success using HTDP with students, and can recommend it - especially for the type of student that has interest/potential but that might otherwise struggle with a more standardized teaching approach.Thank you pointing this out. solutions without using lambda whereas The Little Schemer always uses … I wish there was a way to mark this as a sticky of some sort.If you up vote the post it gets saved in your profile under saved stories. I would personally recommend spending more time on HTDP or SICP instead of reading 'Simply Scheme. the little schemer vs sicp (3) I just cracked open The Little Schemer, and I feel like I'm missing something. ): I am a young physician and at the same time a big fan of CS since I was in high-school! But why is the 1st edition better?There's a REALLY cool chapter in the first edition, Chapter 12 ("Compiler Derivation") about using continuation-passing style to incrementally convert an interpreter to a (bytecode) compiler. I would advise anyone who is already at the point of considering reading SICP (so probably some familiarity with programming) to skip How to Design Programs. It's dry, slow, and not particularly fun.I haven't done SICP so I don't know what a good prereq would be, but I remember The Little Schemer being entertaining and covering the same sort of ground as HTDP at a better pace.I didn't quit after one chapter. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts The Schemers are really easy to read and HTDP goes into greater detail on many of the topics.You can also find assignments, tests, lecture notes, lab notes, example and other course material to compliment Brian Harvey's course here:Awesome, thanks for these tips. I'm going to start working through SICP in about two weeks.One of the really cool things about Eli's story is the fact that he received a copy of SICP signed by Abelson and Sussman after completing his project (because of the actions of someone who knows the authors). I think the rationale for his approach is so that student's don't get tripped up by using only math examples.HTDP (How To Design Programs) and the Schemer series I highly recommend. A crazy, 70s synth-filled, wizard induced gift.I enjoyed reading 'Concrete Abstractions', and it's usually very cheap if you buy it used on Amazon (I think I paid about $5.00 for a copy that was like new. Just stick with it and you'll realize that you actually understand it.I agree it isn't hard but I think that if you read the companion texts and read the "prerequisites" you will internalize the lessons better.I found that reading SCIP while stoned helps understanding. There were a few sections I had to read twice, but the book was far more accessible than say SICP.If you've never coded in Lisp or Scheme or if you're looking for some good exercises for your coding fu, I highly recommend this book. I think this it's a discontinued experiment as there are only 2 tutors. There are notes for the first few lectures.Finally, watch the videos of Abelson and Sussman (http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lectures/). I think you'll learn more per invested time.If you "did" this book at the age of 14 and came away with the idea that it was about "hard" math, your learning/time ratio might not have been as high as you imagined.I know the book is not about math (in fact I'm a math major now so I think I know what math is about ;), it was just that the mathy things were the hardest for me. I personally find it to be different enough from SICP as to not be considered a precursor to SICP. Yes, it was somewhat hard, but only in a few areas.SICP really isn't that hard. The lecture notes are also available (http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs61a/reader/vol2.html). It's a very short book. A little bit of clarification (apparently needed! Particularly, I found the section were it has you write a Y-combinator mindblowing, having come at this it with barely any experience with Scheme under my belt - and none with lambda calculus.Walking away from Little Schemer, I found that I had a MUCH more complete understanding of recursion and Scheme than I had before.As for Seasoned Schemer, I haven't really had time to go through it how I'd like, so I don't know exactly what it teaches.New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be castA subreddit for all questions related to programming in any language.Press J to jump to the feed. The audio is nice to listen to with the slides.I'd like to add that there are also people working through SICP on Curious Reef (my social learning website): The OCW page for 6.001/SICP has complete lecture notes, which are useful supplements to the book, especially with additional diagrams: There is also a public tutor [1] based on the course - basically a set of slides and audio (I think taken from an actual course) plus sets of questions to test your understanding of the material. From the last exercise in ch 4: "This problem is open-ended. You won't be able to read it like you read a novel, but I'd advise diving right into SICP and only using these additional materials if you really get stuck.