Announcing Pan# 1.0 Pan# is a new front end for Conal Elliott's Pan system. Pan# is a stand-alone system that displays interactive functional images expressed in a slightly augmented Haskell subset. Pan# is ideal for demonstrating the core principles of functional programming in an interesting and creative manner. Features of this release include: * All examples from Conal's Fun of Programming chapter * Many examples stolen from Jerzy Karczmarczuk's functional textures work * Full type checking * New user interface controls (random numbers, Haskore timing tracks) * More Haskell features * Movie making capabilities * Improved viewer * Simplified syntax for monadic code Pan# runs on Windows and uses the .NET system for dynamic compilation. It has not yet been ported to Linux or Macs but if you're familiar with the open source .NET systems we would be glad to help someone move Pan# to other operating systems. Pan# is easy to install and use. It has been tested with high school students and has proven to be an effective vehicle for introducing novices to the basics of computer programming without getting wrapped up in the endless details of visual Basic or other "industrial strength" computer languages. Because functional programming is very close to mathematics, Pan# does not need to introduce unfamiliar computational paradigms to students. We are also investigating the use of Pan# as an instructional tool for high school mathematics - some examples of this are included in the distribution. You can download Pan# at http://haskell.org/edsl/pansharp.html Thanks to Microsoft Research for supporting this project. John Peterson, Yale Haskell Group peterson-john@cs.yale.edu