[plt-scheme] Hit People Over the Head with HtDP

From: Ernie Smith (esmith at acanac.net)
Date: Mon Jan 19 20:29:34 EST 2009

I'm an experienced working programmer who did start with HtDP.
I was careful to keep an open mind and work through it in spite
of a sense it was a bit pedantic for an experienced programmer.
There was definitely an urge to gloss over it so quickly
you get nothing out of it.  It took self discipline to keep
that in check.

What I did get out of it was an appreciation for Dr Scheme.
What impressed me most was the beautiful way the language can
grow with the student's grasp of it, thus permitting things to
be learned with no clutter fogging the issues.

But most of the things taught in HtDP were already known
to me.  I just wish I had it 20 years earlier.

I'm looking forward to the next Ht??

What actually drew me here in the first place was a sense that
though I had been using programming languages for decades I really
never learned how to properly evaluate the merit of a programming
language as applicable to a given class of problems.
I've observed that PLT scheme is excellent to use for exploring 
programming language features.  I also observed that much exploration
is going on around PLT scheme.

So I hope for "How to select a programming language" with bated breath.

Meanwhile, I suggest to any other battle scarred programmer with similar 
aspirations, that working through Shriram's "Programming languages: 
Application and Interpretation" took me forward a long way toward my goal.

> http://www.plai.org/



















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