HACKER Q&A
📣 ravish0007

Where to find HTML version of SICP?


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


  👤 jiffygist Accepted Answer ✓
HTML5 version that is designed to look like pdf version

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


👤 thesuperbigfrog
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
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

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

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

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


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