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I can see the advantages of JavaScript over Pascal, Perl, Prolog, and Java. Did you ever try Python? What are your thoughts on Logo, Karel, etc.?

• wwweston 15y ago
  I'm a little down on things like Logo and Karel, partly because I prefer things that are more general, and partly because even in the niche I might use them, my judgment is that Scratch is better. :) I didn't try Python myself until late 2001, and by then, I was already more or less out of education, so I didn't get to try it out on anybody else. But if I were guessing, I think the language itself would probably work pretty well for most students, possibly somewhat better than JS. Not sure how big the advantage would be, though (like I said, we really didn't struggle with JS's warts much), and I think the broad target for JavaScript's use give it something of an advantage too. This would vary by domain, though. If I were trying to teach a number-crunching focused class, for example, Python would probably move way up my list.