I'm currently in Intro to Programming and we use the same software that MIT teaches their students with. It's called Python 2.5.4 and it's easy to use. Here's a module i'm working on right now:
# santalist.py
# See who is on the good/bad list
good_list = [ "Mary", "Evan", "Georgina", "Ralph", "Jesse" ]
bad_list = [ "Frank", "Ruth" ]
print "Welcome to the Santa Claus good/bad list."
print "Enter a name or just press Enter when done."
while True:
name = raw_input("Name: ")
if not name:
break
if name in good_list:
print name, "is on the good list."
elif name in bad_list:
print name, "is on the bad list."
if raw_input("Remove from bad list? ") == "yes":
bad_list.remov e(name)
else:
print "Sorry, can't find", name,
print "on either list."
print "Good List =", good_list, "Bad List =", bad_list
if raw_input("Add to the good list? ") == "yes":
good_list.appe nd(name)
# end-of-file