Lambda the Ultimate

Hello!!

I'm a fan of the C language for certain applications (mainly numerical computations). I'm fairly productive in it, but there is one thing I'm sick of: writing and organizing header files.

Are there any proposals to add a module system to the official C standard (like for C++)?

Sort of:

  import stdio, stdlib;

  module example_module;

  
  // exposed data structure
  struct some_public_structure { .. };

  static struct some_private_structure { .. }:

  // exposed function
  void public_function(..) {...}

  static void private_function(..) {...}

I will be teaching introductory programming to total newbies in Q3 of this year.
The programming language is totally up to me to decide.
I'm looking for a language+environment that will not place too high a demand on learning the editors/IDEs.

What would be your recommendations ?
I'm looking for something in line with:

• squeak
• greenfoot

Thanks.

Gavin

I used EOPL and TAPL to learn to write interpreters for simple languages and found both books tremendously helpful.

I've been using a custom scheme-like language (generating C code )for some of my consulting work with great success.

Now I am trying to learn how to implement languages with concurrency constructs (threads, actors, message passing concurrency etc). I could try to hack the source code of an existing concurrent language, but I was wondering if there was a book to learn from ("Implementing Concurrent Languages"? :-) ), along the lines of EOPL, explaining the various issues and tradeoffs on *implementing* concurrent languages. But this maybe too much to expect, I am just looking for a starting point.

Amazon has a few books on concurrent programming, but I couldn't find any that focussed on *implementation* of concurrent languages.

Any pointers (books, papers, interpreters to hack etc) greatly appreciated. LTU was very helpful the last time I asked a question (on how to write an FFI), hence this question. (Editors, If this question is not appropriate, please delete it )

*Any* information will be gratefully accepted. Help!! :-)

Thanks in advance,

Ravi