For those who don't like Python, and want to think like a real computer scientist check out Interactive SICP (http://xuanji.appspot.com/isicp/)
It is also aimed at introductory CS classes.
I do not agree with gnopgnip, but I think the way you are dressed might have a priming effect. There were quite a few studies conducted on this topic. But I don't think its effect is significant, and if you associate being dressed for the office with something stressful, then it might have negative effect on you.
Recently I was studying Programming Languages Theory with Racket (using this book - http://cs.brown.edu/courses/cs173/2012/book/) and I didn't like DrRacket. So I decided to use Racket with Vim, but the only way could do it was through GNU Screen and Slime plugin for Vim. It works, but it takes several seconds for expressions to travel from Vim to GNU Screen and it is quite inconvenient. Furthermore, I don't have invocation history in the REPL, so if I mistype function name, I'd have to type it all over again. Does anyone know of a better option for Racket with Vim? How do you use interpreted languages with Vim?
I tried using slimv as well some time ago but I never managed to get it working properly. I don't remember exactly what happened but I believe there were some bugs (like the lag you mention) and I couldn't figure out how to properly transfer just the piece of code I wanted to the repl. Plus I didn't want most of the plugins that slimv added (paredit for instance).
I use emacs with evil-mode (very good vim emulation) to program in Racket. The advantage of emacs is that it has paredit, geiser, and other useful plugins.
