[plt-dev] Racket web page

What about a "sort a list," or is that too academic?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: plt-dev-bounces at list.cs.brown.edu [mailto:plt-dev-
> bounces at list.cs.brown.edu] On Behalf Of Matthew Flatt
> Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2010 12:55 PM
> To: plt-dev at list.cs.brown.edu
> Subject: Re: [plt-dev] Racket web page
> 
> Thanks for all the feedback! See below for a status update, and take a
> quick look at the revised page:
> 
>  http://www.cs.utah.edu/~mflatt/tmp/r/www/
> 
> 
> I'm disappointed that we're getting so few 7-line program suggestions.
> Please suggest more.
> 
> The main guideline for a good example is that it should demonstrate
> something that a programmer already wants to do. While I appreciate
> Guillaume's suggestion, I don't think that "use functional hash tables"
> is on many wish lists. In contrast, I think of "traverse a directory
> tree", "create a web server", "create a GUI", and "produce documents"
> as more concrete tasks that are easier for programmers to appreciate.
> 
> That's just a guideline, and the "write static types" and "handle
> infinite lists" examples are a bit indirect by that standard --- but
> they're also language details that certain communities latch onto,
> which is why think those work anyway.
> 
> In any case, we need more good examples, and we especially need easy
> examples like the first few.
> 
> ----------------------------------------
> 
> Things fixed:
> 
>  * The bad intro text at the top left has been removed.
> 
>  * The Javascript bug that caused clicking the arrows to scroll
>    the page is now fixed.
> 
>  * The code is colorized and hyperlinked.
> 
>  * The initial example is likely to be simpler, since only the first
>    three are candidates to the initial example. (The examples are
>    always in the same order; only the starting position changes.)
> 
>  * The "?" panel explains the current example.
> 
>  * "Grow your Mind" => "Grow your Skills"
> 
> Things not yet fixed:
> 
>  * We don't yet have good intro text for the top left.
> 
>  * The links still mostly go to documentation. (Unfortunately, I don't
>    see that changing before the release.)
> 
>  * Some text changes are still needed on pages other the front page.
> 
> The were also some style suggestions that we'll consider further,
> including an auto-advance for the slideshow.
> 
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