Re:Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP) ...
by AnthonBerg on Thursday September 10, 2020 @11:32AM
(#24433263)
It depends on the person. How they like to think. I promise!
Whether we look at it as programming or computer science, it's abstract enough that it's highly personal and each person has their own idiosyncratic style of learning.
I did and would benefit much more from a book like SICP than books that are written into a more specific purpose.
SICP was created to be an introductory computer science textbook back in the day when anybody who actually enrolled in a computer science course could reasonably be expected to be an absolute nerd. It's a book for teaching computer science to people who already have some amount of programming aptitude. It is not a book that tries to teach programming, to hand-hold students through learning practical applications. Yes, it's been shoehorned into many programming courses, but that's not the book's purpose.
HtDP is much better for teaching programming - it's a book that follows many of SICP's ideas, but doesn't presume any relevant experience on the part of the student. It's still not an ideal book for teaching practical programming to a student who doesn't care about any of the CS theory, though.