
Lisp: A Language for Stratified Design (1987) [pdf] - brudgers
http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/6064/AIM-986.pdf;jsessionid=9B6B8F279FDAC150B9DCA19858ECB6A6?sequence=2
======
abecedarius
SICP super-condensed -- this was my intro to Abelson & Sussman when it came
out. So I ordered their book, which took a month to arrive, quite a valuable
month, because I spent some of it trying to develop the ideas compressed into
this article, for myself. You're better placed to absorb and appreciate an
idea like lazy lists after an independent crack at the same problems.

------
jdreaver
If you like what you read, make sure to read "Structure and Interpretation of
Computer Programs," by the authors of this paper. You can even get video
lectures online! [1]

[1] [http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.001/abelson-
sussma...](http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-
lectures/)

~~~
brudgers
Link to HTML version of SICP:

[http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book-
Z-H-4.html#...](http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book-
Z-H-4.html#%_toc_start)

------
tome
[pdf] tag please.

~~~
stesch
And a [barely readable] tag.

~~~
pasbesoin
Leaning on Google for web-based PDF rendering:

[https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://dspace.mit.edu/bit...](https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/6064/AIM-986.pdf)

The PDF contains images from a scan done in the mid-90's. Elements on some
pages are rather "smudged" -- particularly on the example figures (code and
diagrams) that are appended.

I looked a bit but did not find a clearer copy. Would anyone happen to have
one? (I.e. one that does not derive from this particular scan done by MIT.)

P.S. There is also a Postscript version available, but it is from the same
scan and has the same deficiencies.

<http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/6064>

<http://library.readscheme.org/page7.html>

~~~
abecedarius
It should be in <https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine> somewhere -- I
forget which issue. That's where I saw it originally, on paper.

~~~
pasbesoin
Well, the paper carries a date of August, 1987.

Volume 12 of Byte is 1987. Number 10 of that volume is September. Publishing
dates typically lead calendar dates by up to a month or more.

Unfortunately, the next issue available, per the archive listing sorted by
date, is 12:13, which identifies itself as November. (Perhaps one of their
special issues came out in the intervening timeframe, in addition to October.)

I don't see it listed in the table of contents for September nor October. I'm
about out of time, at the moment, but I might return to this, or maybe someone
else will look at the next few months.

[https://archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3Abyte-
magaz...](https://archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3Abyte-
magazine&sort=-date&page=1)

\----

P.S. 12:14 is a "Special Issue". The next issue available in the archive is
March, 1988.

It's too bad the archive is incomplete.

Nonetheless, an interesting stroll down memory lane. And I saw more than one
article title I may be interested in (re)reading.

~~~
abecedarius
OK, I searched a little more, it's said to be Feb. '88, which seems to be
missing, alas. I'd gotten the impression it was a nearly complete collection.

------
marvinjones
I like how the best way to waste time in a meeting in 1987 was to repeatedly
press the cos button on a pocket calculator

~~~
ttflee
Until you hit the number where cos(x) = x?

~~~
minopret
Exactly, that's what a "fixed point" is.

Fun fact about fixed points #1: Put a sheet of paper on a desk. Notice the
precise area of the desk's surface that it covers. Now ball up the sheet of
paper however you wish, without tearing it. Put it down again in such a way
that every part of that sheet is somewhere over the original area that the
paper occupied. Then there is at least one point on the paper that is
precisely above its original location.

Fun fact about fixed points #2: Some functions, even simple ones suitable for
a desktop calculator, do not reliably approach a fixed point when applied
repeatedly to their own output. You can see this in action at Wikipedia
"Cobweb plot" (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobweb_plot>) for the function
known as the "logistic map", y = r _x_ (1-x). Varying the initial value of x
(really, x-subscript-zero) and the parameter r can cause the map to converge
to a fixed point, to enter a repeating sequence of any length, or to remain in
a finite range without ever repeating. This last behavior is known as "chaos".

