[PD-dev] Passion, fun, elegance, SICP

[Mathieu Bouchard]

I haven't read SICP, but I thought that this email would be inspirational 
to us.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 22 Nov 2005 16:34:10 +0100
From: Shae Matijs Erisson <shae at ScannedInAvian.com>
To: pragprog at yahoogroups.com
[...]

>From http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book-Z-H-3.html

This book is dedicated, in respect and admiration, to the spirit that lives in
the computer.

``I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep
fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course,
the paying customers got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began
to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really were
responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines. I
don't think we are. I think we're responsible for stretching them, setting them
off in new directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of
computer science never loses its sense of fun. Above all, I hope we don't
become missionaries. Don't feel as if you're Bible salesmen. The world has too
many of those already. What you know about computing other people will
learn. Don't feel as if the key to successful computing is only in your
hands. What's in your hands, I think and hope, is intelligence: the ability to
see the machine as more than when you were first led up to it, that you can
make it more.''

Alan J. Perlis (April 1, 1922-February 7, 1990)

In my opinion, all programmers should read SICP, I'm glad it's free.