On Mon, Feb 12, 2007 at 09:42:19AM +0900, Morton Goldberg wrote: > I also think Ruby with turtle graphics added would be good way to > start. We recently did a Ruby Quiz where the problem was to add > turtle graphics to Ruby. I've found that with this add-on it's easy > to translate Logo code into Ruby. If you would like to try it, I'll > send you the complete Ruby turtle graphics kit with a bunch of Logo > programs I've translated into Ruby (direct to your e-mail address -- > its too much to post here). How about sticking it up on rubyforge? I asked exactly the same question a couple of years ago, http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/138245 A reply pointed to http://onestepback.org/packages/rubyturtles/ but I've not tried it. The advantages I can see in teaching Ruby are that it's a language you can do real work in; it's easy to install; and it's sufficiently "normal" that normal people don't have to work hard to read your code (unlike, say, LISP) At least the basic syntax is clean. I know there are skeletons lying in the cupboard for the more advanced Rubyist to trip over, but by that stage they're probably hooked anyway :-) Cheers, Brian.