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Ask HN: Where to find HTML version of SICP?

22 points by ravish0007 3 years ago · 19 comments · 1 min read


I couldn't find sicp, html version, I need it to scrape its text for a project. HTML version is dead?

jiffygist 3 years ago

HTML5 version that is designed to look like pdf version

https://sarabander.github.io/sicp/ https://github.com/sarabander/sicp

thesuperbigfrog 3 years ago

Archived copy here: https://www.jmeiners.com/sicp-html-original/book.html

Justin's GitHub states: "MIT just recently took down the book from their own site (why?!)"

Source: https://github.com/justinmeiners/sicp-html-original

It looks like MIT Press released a Javascript version of SICP that is for sale:

https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262543231/structure-and-interpr...

neilv 3 years ago

If you just need the text, such as for a research project, the original unofficial Texinfo version of SICP might be easier than going from the HTML version: https://www.neilvandyke.org/sicp-texi/

Lytha Ayth's Texinfo conversion of SICP (plus new ASCII art, to be usable on low-powered computers that couldn't handle the HTML well) was done in 2001 or earlier.

I suspect Ayth's version was consistent with the original intent of the authors and MIT Press in releasing the HTML version -- which seemed to be "we're making this rough Web hypertext free, or you can buy the paper book". (One of the SICP authors told me Ayth's Texinfo version was "probably a good thing".)

BTW, since then, I've noticed some people have made and hosted versions that started with Ayth's Texinfo, including redrawing figures as non-ASCII, and providing polished "camera ready" PDF. I don't know what the SICP authors or publisher think about those. The SICP authors are gems, and SICP was an early textbook to be released free for the Web, with hypertext and wide accessibility, helping set precedent for others. I'd be very sad if anyone eventually regrets that (e.g., maybe the publisher trying to maximize revenue so they can fund more great books).

thesuperbigfrog 3 years ago

Download the zip of html files here:

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-001-structure-and-interpretati...

closeparen 3 years ago

I wrote MIT Press about it, got this back: https://mitp-content-server.mit.edu/books/content/sectbyfn/b...

closeparen 3 years ago

Damn, I was using this just a few weeks ago! Even working through the print version, it's helpful to copy and paste starter code for the exercises.

schemescape 3 years ago

I never finished it, but I started porting SICP to HTML5, with an in-browser interpreter:

https://jaredkrinke.github.io/learn-scheme/

  • ravish0007OP 3 years ago

    I have a hard copy of the book though. I couldn't really read, maybe I didn't try harder. English is not my native language.

    TLDR; Will get the text, tokenize the words, index against a standard dictionary, go on from there.

    • schemescape 3 years ago

      Oops, sorry! I must have completely misread your OP. I thought you were reading the book, although I now see that is definitely not what you were looking for.

naru_s 3 years ago

I thought you mean there is a SICP with html as the teaching programming language instead of Lisp

  • masukomi 3 years ago

    HTML isn't a programming language. It's a markup language, and unlike CSS it's not Turing complete. So, you can't really program in it. Also, to be extra pedantic. SICP uses MIT Scheme, which technically _is_ a lisp in the sense that all scheme's are lisps, but that's also like saying a square is a rectangle.

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