[Argorak]

> I'm not sure whether Ruby is a good intro to programming.

> It doesn't have first-level functions, instead it has blocks

Hold it right there. If first-level functions, blocks and module systems are the first thing that springs to your mind when talking about teaching people with _zero, none, absolutely no_ previous experience with coding, you are speaking at a completely different level.

That reads far more like an attempt to discredit a language you don't like then actually caring about the subject matter at hand (teaching coding to kids).

[dopamean]

I taught code at a programming bootcamp for a little over year to people who mostly had no experience programming. For the first 12 months the curriculum was mostly Ruby. I found it incredibly easy to teach Ruby to people and my students were able to build cool stuff relatively quickly with Ruby.

I taught over 100 people in that time and the vast majority of them are doing just fine now. Many are programming in some other language (Java, c#, python, js are common ones). Something about Ruby worked for them.