Students who begin majors in computer science more often than not have already had one or two courses in computer programming as preparation for college studies. The languages used are often Basic, Pascal, C or C++. These students, when taking introductory college courses which use these same languages, often are insufficiently challenged. A different language choice, based more on instructional needs, which they have not previously studied, has the potential of being a leveling experience among the students. Those with prior programming experience in Pascal, C or C++ have no particular advantage over those students who have no experience in these languages.
In the following sections, a number of criteria are given which the author feels are important in choosing a language for introductory computer science instruction. Programming notation ought to be usable as an expository notation to describe all of the topics considered in introductory computer science. Two programming notations, Scheme and J, are used as examples of languages which are proposed as being preferable to Basic, Pascal, C or C++ under each of these criteria.