J is a reincarnation of Iverson's APL, an array processing language (witness the example below). It has its nice features, but is off topic for this list. Friday, February 24, 2006, 5:00:29 PM, you wrote: g99a> You may want to teach J first, in addition, or instead. http://www.jsoftware.com/ g99a> Also FREE. J is the creation of Turing Award winner Ken g99a> Iverson and his colleague Roger Hui. g99a> "J is a modern, high-level, general-purpose, high-performance g99a> programming language. J is portable and runs on Windows, Unix, Mac, g99a> and PocketPC handhelds, both as a GUI and in a console. True g99a> 64-bit J systems are available for XP64 or Linux64, on AMD64 or Intel g99a> EM64T platforms. J systems can be installed and distributed for free." g99a> Examples: g99a> 5 + 5 g99a> 10 g99a> ADD =. + g99a> 5 ADD 5 g99a> 10 g99a> +/ 3 4 5 8 12 45 g99a> 77 g99a> ADDtheseNumbers =. +/ g99a> ADDtheseNumbers 3 4 5 8 12 45 g99a> 77 g99a> 2 + 5 6 7 g99a> 7 8 9 g99a> i. 6 g99a> 0 1 2 3 4 5 g99a> power =: ^ g99a> x power 2 g99a> x =. 3 4 5 6 g99a> x power 2 g99a> 9 16 25 36 g99a> 2 power x g99a> 8 16 32 64 g99a> J comes with many tutorial labs as part of the IDE. g99a> J processes vectors and arrays with ease. g99a> J forums have many J'ers willing to guide. g99a> regards, g99a> gerry g99a> "If your only tool is a hammer, all of your problems tend to g99a> look like nails". (author unknown) g99a> ----- Original Message ----- g99a> From: "Peter Chase" <pchase@sulross.edu> g99a> To: <edu-sig@python.org> g99a> Sent: Friday, February 24, 2006 3:29 PM g99a> Subject: [Edu-sig] Textbooks g99a> I'm teaching some prospective K-12 teachers this summer and propose to g99a> introduce them to Python. Reasons are numerous g99a> - It's the least weird language I know. g99a> - It offers so many programming styles. g99a> - And not least, it's free g99a> SO: Any recommendations as to course textbooks? Or just go with Zelle g99a> and/or O'Reilly's latest wood rat book? g99a> - The students presumably have had programming courses already. g99a> - I would think that K-12 students would be happier if they could g99a> generate some graphics. g99a> - This is a 6-weeks course. Little leisure time. g99a> Appreciate any advice. g99a> Peter Chase g99a> Sul Ross State University g99a> _______________________________________________ g99a> Edu-sig mailing list g99a> Edu-sig@python.org g99a> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig g99a> _______________________________________________ g99a> Edu-sig mailing list g99a> Edu-sig@python.org g99a> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig -- Best regards, Chuck