[racket-dev] racket vs. scheme vs. clojure (as it appears to others)

The last chapter of _Picturing Programs_ is entitled "Next Steps".  It mentions HtDP, HtDP2e, HtDW, HtDC, and a list of advanced Racket topics: the Web server, modules, racket/contract, classes, macros, stand-alone executables, and GUI and graphics libraries.  Most of these topics (not to mention futures, promises, threads, and channels) I'm only vaguely familiar with myself, even having used PLT Scheme since 1998. So I'm not surprised that somebody who had gone through a TS! workshop might not even be aware of their existence.

(When I'm programming in Racket for myself, I tend to work in ISLL + racket/contract.  Why would anyone need more than that? :-) )



Stephen Bloch
sbloch at adelphi.edu

On Apr 29, 2011, at 12:38 PM, Danny Yoo <dyoo at cs.wpi.edu> wrote:

>>>  "Scheme" is usually a liability when someone used it in school years ago (other than with HtDP).
> 
> Small anecdote: I had gone a small presentation at WPI about teaching
> alternative concurrent programming models to undergraduates.  The
> presenter wanted to explore teaching with channels and actors.  They
> chose Google Go as the language to explore those models.  I raised the
> question in the after-session: why not use Racket?  The presenter
> responded with some shock: he had no idea Racket supported threads or
> had channels.
> 
> The presenter had gone through a HtDP class, and was convinced that
> BSL was all that Racket was about.  So I don't necessarily agree that
> it's only the non-HtDP students who have a distorted understanding.
> 
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