[plt-scheme] A Couple of Questions on DrScheme/Mzscheme

On Mon, 30 Sep 2002, Matthias Felleisen wrote:

> 
> The HtDP and SICP approaches are radically different in how they
> cover program design and what kind of domain knowledge they use
> I claim that SICP fails to cover the former, and has a misguided
> selection for the latter (misguided for many CS students at places
> other than MIT). 

Right, they don't teach program design directly the way HtDP does
(e.g. by recipes).  Rather their metaphor is "computational problem
solving" (remember their dept is EECS) applied to engineering.
They came from AI circles (me too, but it does not matter, and
prepare people for exploratory programming.

This technique, while wonderful, does not have application
for everyday programming tasks, and HTDP is much better with
this.

> If I were you, I'd teach HtDP and steal/adapt projects from SICP
> (and its Web page) to the Design purposes  :-) 

Happily or not, it is not my problem now.  I was "forced" to teach
system analysis and design, CASE, databases and similar "practical"
stuff.  However, if I would teach introductory course now, I would
probably design my own curriculum somewhere in the middle between
HTDP and SICP and moved more into one or other direction depending
on student abilities and needs.

Zbyszek Jurkiewicz