Arevos

I think it's a toss up between this forum and the lounge. It is a manner of project, after all.

You're as oblique as always, DaWei

However, whilst your guess isn't objectionable to me personally, it might be construed as being somewhat derisive toward Dimitry, which I don't think is deserved. It's likely this isn't the case, but a first reply to a post could be a little more encouraging.

Even if it is a survey.

Moving back to the subject at hand, I figure Dimitry has a pretty good chance at getting a fair amount of replies. Programmers, and people in general, tend to like talking about themselves and their opinions on a subject they enjoy. And whilst I'd like to demonstrate modesty in this area, I can't

1. How high do you think is your level in programming?
I use a number of programming languages regularly, so I guess that would pigeon-hole me in "Advanced".

2. What age are you?
I'm in the "21 - 30" slot.

3. Name the country and the city you reside in (if it is possible).
London, UK

5. Do you put your programming knowledge in practice?
I program server-side applications used in pharmaceutical trials.

6. Do you think Pascal now is the best choice for a "first language", for teaching programming (as it, perhaps, was in the past)?
I wouldn't say it was the best choice, though I'm sure it's not a bad choice. I'm not sure what the absolute best first language is, but Python seems like a good choice, as it has a very gradual learning curve, an interactive interpreter, and promotes some good programming habits.

7. What features (editing, building, debugging, help systems, etc.) do you think should appear in an educational evironment, targeting the process of teaching how to program?
I've found interactive interpreters rather useful in this regard. Being able to try out ideas and experiment interactively seems a good way to learn.

Secondly, I think a good teaching language should have the minimum of overhead. You don't want to screw around with compiler variables and build scripts when you could be programming.

Finally, some sort of visual feedback is nice to have. LOGO was successful in this regard, and Guide Van Robot is similar. Some time ago, I was also interested in RoboCom, a competitive programming game which uses an assembly-like language. That could be quite good for beginners too.

8. Name programming environments, or other software you know, that are used in the process of teaching how to program (besides software development environments themselves)? Provide URLs, if possible.
Logo - Simple scheme variant. Very basic, but still a reasonably good teaching tool for beginners
Guide Van Robot - Python based program where Python code controls a robot around a 2D grid of obstacles and objects.
RoboCom - Uses assembly-like code to create self-replicating robots that compete for dominance on a 2D grid. Pretty simple to get involved in.
An Interactive Fiction engine - IF engines such as Hugo and TADs tend to be pretty simple to code for, yet have conditions, loops etc. Creating a game whilst learning programming constructs might be a good way to pick up the basics.
I haven't tried RPG Maker XP - But it does use Ruby, and could be quite entertaining. Depends on how complex it is, however.