[plt-scheme] Are continuations discussed in HtDP?

A continuation-based interpreter is a totally different beast
and has nothing to do with the topic. (It's a conventional
confusion so don't worry; it's not a criticism.) I'd never
show a freshman something like that. -- Matthias


On Mar 29, 2004, at 1:58 PM, Mike Lin wrote:

>  For list-related administrative tasks:
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>
> Every now and then the professors here include a continuation-based 
> interpreter design at the end of 6.001. In my experience as a tutor 
> for that class, the students think it is far too difficult and 
> confusing a topic. Of course that is how the class is perceived in 
> general, but I think it is fair to say that only a relative few gain a 
> good understanding of how and why continuations may be used. -Mike
>
> On Mar 29, 2004, at 1:48 PM, Prabhakar Ragde wrote:
>
>>   For list-related administrative tasks:
>>   http://list.cs.brown.edu/mailman/listinfo/plt-scheme
>>
>>>    Do you think that for CompSci freshmen - the continuations are to
>>>    be taught, or it turned out *practically* that this is an
>>>    overkill?
>>
>> I am designing an HTDP-based course for first-year university
>> students, but have not taught it yet. Nonetheless, I feel safe in
>> saying that I would not teach continuations, even in the "enrichment"
>> materials I intend to prepare for the better students. In a full-year
>> sequence, I might (*might*) put them into the optional materials near
>> the end, but not in a one-term course leading, as HTDP intends, to
>> another programming language. No matter how attractive these features
>> of Scheme may be to us, we have to think about the overall context of
>> our pedagogy, and judge the effectiveness of our choices for all
>> students. --PR
>