I’ve been meaning for a while to write about MIT retiring 6.001: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, their intense version of CS101 for Electrical Engineering and Computer Science majors (aka “the weeder course”). The final 6.001 lecture took place in December 2007, presided over by Gerald Jay Sussman who started it all in 1980 with Hal Abelson (who taught 001 the year I muddled through it, semesters after my CS101 at Wellesley). According to a comment in an MIT Admissions blog, Sussman thought the course was obsolete and has wanted to replace it for years. The new introductory courses are meant to better prepare students for how engineering work is done today. Python is used in the new 6.01. Scheme is gone. And I’ve lost a huge common experience with the future graduates of course 6.