Earlier quoted context omitted.
First of all, it's an introductory text that provides a practical whirlwind tour of introductory computer science. Second starts from a straightforward place (when the first edition was written it was quite reasonable to assume that a student arriving at university, even MIT, might never have programmed a computer before) and after one lecture on the scheme language, dives in to practical details. Third, unlike, say,…
Right I always wondered if my opinion of it stemmed from the fact that I read it relatively late in my career. Never having fresh eyes on it, I suppose it's easy to take things like syntax and such for granted. That said, is Scheme really a good language for "not getting hung up on syntax?" It has an admittedly simple grammar but I can't help but feel that with the prevalence of ALGOL style languages, an intro studen…
Re: Beautiful Online SICP
#81It is particularly good for an introductory programming course to use something 'exotic', because that levels the field. Students who did some Basic/Pascal/PHP/Ruby/... in high school, who often think they already know what programming is, are forced to take a fresh look. So the steeper start pays off.