Twenty plus years ago, back when I was in graduate school, I got my first copy of Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs by Abelson and Sussman. At the time, it was a revelation: a book about computer science that actually taught you deep topics in computer science. Every few years, I go back and read this book and learn something new. It’s quite simply the finest computer science textbook that I’ve ever read.

Somewhat interestingly, MIT is now engaged in revamping the introductory course that used Abelson and Sussman’s text, and replacing it with a curriculum that uses Python. I’m not quite sure how I feel about this: while the exercises in SICP do not include topics which might be of interest, such as web programming, realtime programming, or programming window systems, I feel the information presented is essential to a well rounded education. But I’m not going to be dogmatic about this: I’ll wait to see what they come up with. It should be interesting.