I would certainly accept a wide range of other languages. I picked Python because I think I and many of my colleagues can teach a good CS1 in Python. I'm open to a lot of other options.
But not Haskell. Please don't say Haskell :)
But not Haskell. Please don't say Haskell :)
Tons of preferences. But that will be dominated by the dislike most non self motivated learners will have. That is, most students are, I suppose, extrinsically motivated.
Now, tooling would be awesome. But for some reason, the tooling we expose students to is super expensive for personal use. Or requires a lot of investment in time. I'm thinking Mathematica and emacs.
Python is trying with notebooks. But has a lot of ground to catch up on. And seems to breed bad habits in the process.