I think a huge plus for Ruby is the limited amount of specific punctuation required for calls like this. For you average middle or high school student this might not be a big deal, but as soon as you start working with elementary school students every small barrier to entry is a huge deal.
Books like this shouldn't be designed for the children that would enjoy hunting through and finding the missing quotation mark - those children already have tons of resources out there for them. I think Ruby is a great choice, specifically for this reason, and I wish there were more resources like this available when I was setting up K-5 CS curricula a few years ago.
Books like this shouldn't be designed for the children that would enjoy hunting through and finding the missing quotation mark - those children already have tons of resources out there for them. I think Ruby is a great choice, specifically for this reason, and I wish there were more resources like this available when I was setting up K-5 CS curricula a few years ago.