I'm all for Scheme as first language. When combined with the SICP book for an introductory CS course, it allows you to explore pretty much any concievable paradigm in a single solid framework.
Sounds like a sales wrap, but it's really how I feel about it. And it's the MIT thing to do :-)
Anyway, I'd say the differences between Python and Ruby as a first language are too minor to matter. By the time differences in available libraries should matter, you should be able to decide for yourself which language to use.
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I'm all for Scheme as first language. When combined with the SICP book for an introductory CS course, it allows you to explore pretty much any concievable paradigm in a single solid framework.
Sounds like a sales wrap, but it's really how I feel about it. And it's the MIT thing to do :-)
You can even download full-length lectures for SICP:
http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lectures/
Anyway, I'd say the differences between Python and Ruby as a first language are too minor to matter. By the time differences in available libraries should matter, you should be able to decide for yourself which language to use.