I was actually enrolled in the first python version of this course. at that time it was taught by a google employee and not Brian Harvey (author of the OP, past

I was actually enrolled in the first python version of this course. at that time it was taught by a google employee and not Brian Harvey (author of the OP, past professor of this course). For me personally, the biggest benefit of python was the large amount of accessible resources online. There were multiple ways to learn something rather than banging my head against SICP. Incidentally, writing a scheme interpreter was one of the last projects of the course. ---------- EDIT: More from the OP about this topic https://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/61a.html https://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/61a.html