Code and Coffee Book Club

The official book club of Code and Coffee Long Beach.

Hosted online on the Code and Coffee Discord server, livestreamed to twitch, and uploaded to YouTube.

Books

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

Sessions

Session Zero, [2025-02-23 Sun 15:00-16:00]
- Linked in Twitch Chat
- (www.meetup.com) Code and Coffee Book Club, Sun, Feb 23, 2025, 3:00 PM | Meetup events website
```
ROAM_REFS: https://www.meetup.com/code-and-coffee-long-beach/events/306193274/
```
  - Code and Coffee Book Club
  Hosted By Ryan W.
  ** Details
  The focus is on technical books, especially ones considered classical computer science texts.
  Current book: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, second edition.
  This first session will be an introduction to the book club, an overview of the first book, covering the preface of the book, and deciding how much material to cover in the next session. The second session will dive into the body of the book.
  The book club will be held online in the Code && Coffee Discord server in a voice channel and will be streamed online on the Code && Coffee Twitch channel. As always, every one is welcome to participate in their choice of text, voice, or video chat.
  Tags: Book Club, Learning, Lisp, Programming Languages, Computer Programming
  - Links from Comments
- Links from Discord
- (physbuzz.github.io) 02-23-2025.md
Session One, [2025-03-02 Sun 15:00-16:00]
Session Two, [2025-03-16 Sun 15:00-16:25]
Session Three, [2025-03-23 Sun 15:00-16:00]
- Current section (sarabander.github.io) Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, 2e: 1.3
- Next: SICP Chapter 2 (intro) and SICP Section 2.1
- Java's usage of the word "body" was brought up
  
  SICP does use "Body", in the same sense. In addition, according to Wikipedia, the book predates Java by around 11 years.
- Closures were discussed
  
  The book sticks to the mathematical definition, see (sarabander.github.io) Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, 2e: 2.2, and not the definition commonly used by Lisp and JavaScript programmers.
- (pythontutor.com) Python Tutor - Python Online Compiler with Visual AI Help
  
  Was mentioned in passing, in regard to the substitution model of execution. See also SICP2e 1.1.5: The Substitution Model for Procedure Application.
- (en.wikipedia.org) Wolfram Language - Wikipedia
  
  Similarities to the Wolfram Language were brought up.
- A comparison was made between higher-order functions in C vs Lisp
  An example of C using function-pointers was given of
```
qsort
```
  . Higher-order functions are more powerful in Lisp due to the ability to programmatically define new functions at runtime based on program input.
- (www.youtube.com) Mathematical Physics 01 - Carl Bender - YouTube
- (sarabander.github.io) SICP, 2e: 3.2 The Environment Model of Evaluation
  
  A comparison was made between the substitution model of application (see SICP2e 1.1.5: The Substitution Model for Procedure Application) and the environment model of evaluation.
- LISP 1.5 Programmer's Manual
- (jmc.stanford.edu) History of Lisp
  - (jmc.stanford.edu) lisp.pdf
- Recursive functions of symbolic expressions and their computation by machine, Part I by John McCarthy
- (texdraft.github.io) Lisp Compiler
- (en.wikipedia.org) SHRDLU - Wikipedia
- Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp by Peter Norvig
- (en.wikipedia.org) Cyc - Wikipedia
- (www.wired.com) One Genius' Lonely Crusade to Teach a Computer Common Sense | WIRED
- (www.wired.com) CYC-O | WIRED
- IBM 704
Session Four, [2025-03-30 Sun 15:00-16:00]
Session Five, [2025-04-06 Sun 15:00-16:00]
Study Session [2025-04-13 Sun 15:00-16:00]

Study session prior to §2.3 to allow more time to read and give extra time to discussing exercises. Not streamed or recorded. No host present.
Session Six, [2025-04-20 Sun 15:00-16:00]

Session recorded by an attendee, but not streamed. No host present due to multiple schedule conflicts and last-minute obligations.
- Current section (sarabander.github.io) SICP, 2e: 2.3 Symbolic Data
Session Seven, [2025-04-27 Sun 15:00-16:00]
Session Eight, [2025-05-04 Sun 15:00-16:00]
- Current section (sarabander.github.io) SICP, 2e: 2.5 Systems with Generic Operations
- Native number types in Racket causing issues in implementing the examples in SICP
  
  Racket has native fractions which messes with implementing some of the examples in SICP §2.5.
- See also (sarabander.github.io) SICP, 2e: 2.4 Multiple Representations for Abstract Data for definition, or lack thereof, of
```
apply-generic
```
  ,
```
put
```
  ,
```
get
```
- (www.youtube.com) The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Multiple Dispatch | Stefan Karpinski | JuliaCon 2019 - YouTube
- (en.wikipedia.org) Expression problem - Wikipedia
- (www.juliaopt.org) 2019 JuMP-dev Keynote - stefan_{karpinski.pdf}
- (en.wikipedia.org) Numerical tower - Wikipedia
- (en.wikipedia.org) The Diamond Problem - Multiple inheritance - Wikipedia
- (en.wikipedia.org) Python - Extending languages with multiple-dispatch libraries - Examples - Multiple dispatch - Wikipedia
- (en.wikipedia.org) Common Lisp Object System - Wikipedia
  - (en.wikipedia.org) Metaobject Protocol - Metaobject - Wikipedia
- Greenspun's Tenth Rule
- (cs.brown.edu) The Structure and Interpretation of the Computer Science Curriculum (sics.dvi - paper.pdf)
- (en.wikipedia.org) C++ - Emulating Multiple Dispatch - Examples - Multiple dispatch - Wikipedia
- "Design patterns are what happens when you run out of language"
  
  Seems to a mutation of Rich Hickey's
  
  Patterns mean "I have run out of language."
  
  which people seem to like quoting but not citing.
- JuliaCon 2025
- (sarabander.github.io) SICP, 2e: 2.5: Footnote #118
Session Nine, [2025-05-11 Sun 15:00-16:00]
Session Ten, [2025-05-18 Sun 15:00-16:00]
- Current section (sarabander.github.io) SICP, 2e: 3.2 The Environment Model of Evaluation
- (www.youtube.com) Lecture 5A | MIT 6.001 Structure and Interpretation, 1986 - YouTube
- (www.youtube.com) L21 Assignment and State | UC Berkeley Cs 61A, Spring 2010 - YouTube
- The Garbage Collection Handbook
- Diagramming parallel vs series frames and environments
  
  Was attempting to draw a diagram of parallel vs. series frames when defining nested and non-nested functions and when calling said functions.
- Build Your Own Lisp
Session Eleven, [2025-05-25 Sun 15:00-16:00]
- Current section (sarabander.github.io) SICP, 2e: 3.3 Modeling with Mutable Data
- (www.youtube.com) 6.001 SICP: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (2004) - YouTube
  - In particular, Grant recommended (www.youtube.com) 13. Environment Model - 6.001 Sicp (2004) - YouTube at 43 minutes in
- SICP Reading Group - Book Club Notes - Section 3.3 - Exercise 3.17
- (con.racket-lang.org) RacketCon
- (www.youtube.com) From Here to Lambda and Back Again - Douglas Crockford - RacketCon 2023 - YouTube at 8 minutes was shared by Grant
- Next time, still covering (sarabander.github.io) SICP, 2e: 3.3 Modeling with Mutable Data
Session Twelve, [2025-06-01 Sun 15:00-16:00]
- Current section (sarabander.github.io) SICP, 2e: 3.3 Modeling with Mutable Data
- Grant's example of
```
add-to-agenda!
```
```
(define (add-to-agenda! time action agenda)
  (define (belongs-before? segments)
    (or (null? segments)
        (< time
           (segment-time (car segments)))))
  (define (make-new-time-segment time action)
    (let ((q (make-queue)))
      (insert-queue! q action)
      (make-time-segment time q)))
  (define (add-to-segments! segments)
    (if (= (segment-time (car segments)) time)
        (insert-queue!
         (segment-queue (car segments))
         action)
        (let ((rest (cdr segments)))
          (if (belongs-before? rest)
              (set-cdr!
               segments
               (cons (make-new-time-segment
                      time
                      action)
                     (cdr segments)))
              (add-to-segments! rest)))))
  (let ((segments (segments agenda)))
    (if (belongs-before? segments)
        (set-segments!
         agenda
         (cons (make-new-time-segment
                time
                action)
               segments))
        (add-to-segments! segments))))
```
- Special forms vs. Function
```
;; =let= is a special form.  =(x 2)= isn't evaluated as a normal expression, rather is understood by the code of =let= to define a local binding.
(let ((x 2))
  (display x))
;; =define= is also a special form.  Here, =(square x)= and =(* x x)= aren't evaluated; rather, they are taken, as-is, as input to =define= and mean "bind a lambda that takes a single argument to square" and "let the body of the lambda be (* x x)", respectively.
(define (square x)
  (* x x))
;; Here, calling =square= is just calling a normal function.  Everything is evaluated as normal.  No special forms.
(square 2)
```
- (conservatory.scheme.org) R5RS: Revised⁵ Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
- (github.com) racket/racket: The Racket repository
  Looking for the implementation of
```
assoc
```
  in Racket:
  - racket/racket/collects/racket/private/list.rkt line 157 at 06f13d69a245ae63927a2cb828d5097f668549e3 · racket/racket
  - racket/racket/collects/racket/private/list.rkt line 195 at 06f13d69a245ae63927a2cb828d5097f668549e3 · racket/racket
- (dspace.mit.edu) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory - Technical Report: The Art of the Propagator by Alexey Radul and Gerald Jay Sussman (MIT-CSAIL-TR-2009-002.pdf)
- (lobste.rs) Art of the Propagator (2008) | Lobsters
  - (dspace.mit.edu) The definition and implementation of a computer programming language based on constraints
- (www.youtube.com) "We Really Don't Know How to Compute!" - Gerald Sussman (2011) - YouTube
- (www.youtube.com) "Propositions as Types" by Philip Wadler - YouTube
- (store.steampowered.com) Virtual Circuit Board on Steam
- (www.nand2tetris.org) Home | nand2tetris
- (en.wikipedia.org) Memoization - Wikipedia
- (lfe.io) (LFE:Lisp Flavoured Erlang)
- (en.wikipedia.org) LFE (programming language) - Wikipedia
- notes-ch3-3.md exercise 3.32 from (physbuzz.github.io) notes-ch3-3.md
- (www.amazon.com) Building Problem Solvers (Artificial Intelligence): Forbus, Kenneth D., De Kleer, Johan: 9780262061575: Amazon.com: Books
- (mitpress.mit.edu) Software Design for Flexibility
  - (mitpress.ublish.com) Software Design for Flexibility
- (groups.csail.mit.edu) Revised Report on the Propagator Model
- (en.wikipedia.org) Linguistic relativity - Wikipedia
- (www.amazon.com) Amazon.com: Common LISP: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation (Dover Books on Engineering) eBook : Touretzky, David S.: Kindle Store
- (en.wikipedia.org) Leslie Lamport - Wikipedia
- (en.wikipedia.org) Byzantine fault - Wikipedia
- (en.wikipedia.org) Lock (computer science) - Wikipedia
- (en.wikipedia.org) Semaphore - Wikipedia
- (en.wikipedia.org) Semaphore (programming) - Wikipedia
- Favorite footnote: (sarabander.github.io) SICP, 2e: 3.3, Footnote 148
- Next time (sarabander.github.io) SICP, 2e: 3.4 Concurrency: Time Is of the Essence
Session Thirteen, [2025-06-08 Sun 15:00-16:00]

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