SICP-Notes-Lecture 01 Course Introduction

Lecture 01 Course Introduction

These are my notes for SICP(Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs). Hope they’ll be of some help to you.

Introduction

Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.

• Introduction to Programming
• Managing Complexity: Mastering Abstraction; Programming Paradigms

This is a challenging course that will demand a lot from you.
But this will also be a fruitful course that will bring a lot to you.

• Ask for help if you are stuck and make a good effort on all of the homework.

• Do not share code.

Expressions

Description

An expression describes a computation and evaluates to a value.

Types of expressions

• Primitive Expressions: 2(numbers); "hello"(strings); add(names)
• Arithmetic Expressions: 1 + 2; 15 // 3
• Call Expressions: add(3, 4); max(add(2, 3), 5*min(-1, 4))

Evaluating call expressions

1. Evaluate

• evaluate the operator subexpression
• evaluate each operand subexpression

2. Apply

• apply the value of the operator subexpression to the values of the operand subexpression

Values

Description

• Programs manipulate values

• Values represent different types of data

Types of data

• Integers: 2; 44; -3
• Strings:"hello"; "cs61a"
• Floats: 3.14; 4.5; -2.0
• Booleans: True; False

Expressions evaluate to values in one or more steps