Posted on 26 June 2016.

We need better languages for introductory computing. A good introductory language makes good compromises between expressiveness and performance, and between simplicity and feature-richness. Pyret is our evolving experiment in this space.

Since we expect our answer to this question will evolve over time, we’ve picked a place for our case for the language to live, and will update it over time:

The Pyret Code; or A Rationale for The Pyret Programming Language

The first version answers a few questions that we expect many people have when considering languages in general and languages for education in particular:

Why not just use Java, Python, Racket, OCaml, or Haskell?

Will Pyret ever be a full-fledged programming language?

But there are lots of kinds of “education”!

What are some ways the educational philosophy influences the langauge?

In this post, it’s worth answering one more immediate question:

What’s going on right now, and what’s next?

We are currently hard at work on three very important features:

Support for static typing. Pyret will have a conventional type system with tagged unions and a type checker, resulting in straightforward type errors without the complications associated with type inference algorithms. We have carefully designed Pyret to always be typeable, but our earlier type systems were not good enough. We’re pretty happy with how this one is going.

Tables are a critical type for storing real-world data. Pyret is adding linguistic and library support for working effectively with tables, which PAPL will use to expose students to “database” thinking from early on.

Our model for interactive computation is based on the “world” model. We are currently revising and updating it in a few ways that will help it better serve our new educational programs.

On the educational side, Pyret is already used by the Bootstrap project. We are now developing three new curricula for Bootstrap:

A CS1 curriculum, corresponding to a standard introduction to computer science, but with several twists based on our pedagogy and materials.

A CS Principles curriculum, for the new US College Board Advanced Placement exam.

A physics/modeling curriculum, to help teach students physics and modeling through the medium of programming.

If you’d like to stay abreast of our developments or get involved in our discussions, please come on board!