best programming language for a programming book?
roshambo: JavaScript, for several reasons:1) Dynamic typing. The user doesn't have to worry about data types and memory usage and what-not.2) Common syntax. It uses somewhat of a C-style syntax (with its conditionals, curly braces, and so forth) and therefore shares characteristics with many, many other languages (PHP, Java, Perl, etc.) and will help the reader translate your teachings to other languages.3) Ubiquity. As you mention, most of us have or will encounter JavaScript.4) Ease of use. Everyone has a JavaScript interpreter (via their browsers). To test code no software installation is necessary.Many coding-enthusiasts will say Python. While it's a very, very well-designed language, I recommend avoiding it because it's syntax is so different than other languages.