Is there any point to working with them?

I'm in the process of (re)educating myself in CSC, and I think that it's fucking awesome that MIT Courseware has all their computer science stuff available online. Their introductory class, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, is taught using Scheme. I've been messing around with it, and I like the idea of going through the entire class by myself, but it would be a pretty big undertaking.

My main goals for this is to both a) learn something that will be useful and b) learn something that will be fun. Those can be pretty at odds with one another, so I'm comfortable with doing a little of both concurrently.

Do any of you programmer types have any thoughts on the matter? Should I write the next great XBox game in F#? Or stick to learning on C#, the language invented for retards, which I find pretty comforting at this point in time.

5/3/2008 3:56:01 PM

The real gain of the method used @ MIT is that it teaches the fundamentals at the level of the system. You have to think about how you build up your lists, you have to really understand how recursion works, you can more easily see where dynamic program is a benefit, and where it is overkill.

I don't think that the long term usefulness of knowing scheme will pan out, unless you become an EMacs plug-in builder, but the long term usefulness of understanding the fundamentals as well as you will after going through those notes/assignments is definitely worth it.

5/3/2008 6:39:58 PM

Cool, thanks.

Anybody else?

5/4/2008 3:41:14 PM

What languages are your peers working in?

5/4/2008 4:20:32 PM

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I'm not a professional programmer in any way whatsoever. I was really into it since I was about 13, but I haven't done anything in the past five years. This is mainly for my own personal enrichment, entertainment, and possibly preparing myself for going back to school at some point in the future (not any time soon, probably, but something to think of for the future).

5/4/2008 4:56:06 PM