SICP videos are also great. The first part of the Lecture 1A, talks about "computer science". From the first moment, we learn that computer science is also not really much about computers.
"...when some field is just getting started and you don't really understand it very well, it's very easy to confuse the essence of what you're doing with the tools that you use..."
"...Well, similarly, I think in the future people will look back and say, yes, those primitives in the 20th century were fiddling around with these gadgets called computers, but really what they were doing is starting to learn how to formalize intuitions about process, how to do things, starting to develop a way to talk precisely about how-to knowledge..."
"...when some field is just getting started and you don't really understand it very well, it's very easy to confuse the essence of what you're doing with the tools that you use..."
So true of so many fields, namely photography. Can't tell you how much camera gear I bought before I finally sold it all and started taking photographs.
As it is with computers. Languages mean nothing, it's the concepts that matter.
Gerald Sussman is a fantastic, enthusiastic teacher. It takes a little getting used to watching him write all that code on a blackboard but the videos are a great compliment to the book.
"...when some field is just getting started and you don't really understand it very well, it's very easy to confuse the essence of what you're doing with the tools that you use..."
"...Well, similarly, I think in the future people will look back and say, yes, those primitives in the 20th century were fiddling around with these gadgets called computers, but really what they were doing is starting to learn how to formalize intuitions about process, how to do things, starting to develop a way to talk precisely about how-to knowledge..."