Seeking Advice on Teaching C in Introductory Programming Course

[Richard Pattis]

  The Engineering College at the University of Washington plans to phase out
its "Introduction to Programming in FORTRAN" class, and instead switch to a
more "modern" language.  We are considering various posibilities (and we plan
to teach 1 week of FORTRAN at the end anyway).  This class will be taken by
every pre-engineering student.  We are on the quarter system, so the course
will last 10 weeks (4 hours/week).

I don't want to start a language-wars flame fest, but I would like to ask one
specific question: What experiences have instructors had teaching C in a
completely introductory course to a wide range of students?  I'm looking
for the details associated with answers like "We tried switching to C and
everything worked fine" or "We tried switching to C and ended up switching
back".

I will repost the mailings I get in a week or so; if you me mail that you
don't want reposted, please tell me.

Rich Pattis