WHY STRUCTURE AND INTERPRETATION OF COMPUTER PROGRAMS MATTERS

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The textbook, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP), revolutionized introductory computer science education by focusing on big-picture ideas like abstraction and functions as data, rather than just programming language details. It chose Scheme as the teaching language, which allowed students to grasp concepts without getting bogged down in syntax. SICP set a high bar for student expectations, challenging them with complex tasks like building interpreters. The SICP course has been very popular at UC Berkeley and has served well in educating computer science students that do well in industry and graduate school.