I haven't read HTDP and can't authoritatively comment on it /have no idea how it compares to SICP, but I found this statement pretty ridiculous: > While SICP (

I haven't read HTDP and can't authoritatively comment on it /have no idea how it compares to SICP, but I found this statement pretty ridiculous: > While SICP (yes, everybody uses the acronym) is considered a holy grail for serious computer scientists, it's hella hard to figure out. For me, programming "methods" that make me jump through intellectual hoops made of mathematics make it hard for me to learn the actual /programming/. I started learning how to program in high school using whatever resources I could find (my school didn't have any programming courses beyond an introduction to 1980s BASIC, so independent study was the only option), initially following the very nuts and bolts-oriented instruction in C++ Primer Plus (I arbitrarily chose this as a good intro textbook based on my limited understanding of what constituted 'real' programming versus BASIC). I spent the better part of of 2 years making unremarkable C++ programs that were little more than basic math and control flow mashed together with the C++ standard input/output libraries. At some point, I happened upon SICP, and learned more about computer science and programming in six weeks than I had in all of my previous self-study. I hold that it was, and still is, a remarkably succinct and understandable introduction to the fundamental concepts that underlie computer science. Yes, math was involved, but I didn't need to learn anything beyond my basic high school algebra education to understand how that math translated into programs: SICP did an excellent job of explaining how programming related to that math. Most importantly, it was /fun/: working through SICP made me feel like I was learning a new way of thinking, not just learning how to translate something I already knew into computer language. Other descriptions of HTDP suggest that it combines my painful slog through the nuts and bolts of programming (albeit more succinctly and less painfully) with SICP's math/CS elements, so it's probably a better textbook for tackling both at once. However, it's crucial that it does both: to focus only on "actual programming" as the author suggests is probably a surefire recipe to convince students that computer science is a dull field consisting solely of writing instructions for computers, with no thought whatsoever into what instructions make sense or why.