Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Starting out with MIT's "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs"

Despite the fact that during my most recent interview they basically told me that fundamentals of computer science like data structures, algorithms, and design patterns don't really matter because .NET takes care of all that in the background, I really want to learn the fundamentals. Even if I never use them.

So I don't know where I first saw a reference to this course. It was some blog or comment thread somewhere on the internet that I stumbled upon while looking for preparation materials for this job interview. But I was fascinated by it.  I've known about MIT OCW forever, but I never really took the time to work through a class. Probably had something to do with the fact that I was IN school already and had my own homework and such to worry about. Well now that I am freed from the confines of formal education (HA I did everything online, who am I kidding?) I can finally buckle down and go through some of these courses.

So, first up is Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs.  Luckily the book is freely available from another university in France. Go figure. The class uses a version of LISP called Scheme so I'll need a compiler.  Fortunately, MIT/GNU Scheme is free. I like free, free is good.

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