[Raphael_Amiard]

Actually, i agree with him than SICP goes through a lot more important concepts than Dive Into Python, or any other book like this can do.

I also don't find it good that berkeley is abandonning it. But, i really think that it's not necessarily a good choice for an introductory course.

To sum up my position fast, i would say : "First teach how to program some silly things, by teaching the basis of a language (and python seems a very good choice for this). Then when students are addicted, show them some SICP"

This resonates with a lots of comments about SICP, where people who liked it are often quite experienced programmers, and not beginners (Not to say that SICP can't be appreciated by novices, but that it's probably a bit hard for an introductory course)

EDIT : Sorry, jdietrich did say something very similar to me in an earlier comment that i didn't see : http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2846189