[apenney]

My biggest issue with SICP was the lack of available unit tests for the exercises. I'd often "get it wrong" and have no recourse but to read a solution to see that I'd failed to account for some aspect of the problem.

Without an easily verifiable way to test your solutions as you go I think these kinds of books really do themselves a disservice as you lose the ability to struggle and think hard about the problem if you can't immediately solve it.

[afarrell]

Ideally, it would actually include guidance on a good way to write the automated tests yourself after the first few.