[plt-scheme] re: programming for the web in scheme (vlado)

> > Is understanding continuations completely a prerequisite to
> creating  
> > the correct workflow, or does experimenting with workflows in web- 
> > apps lead from a partial to a better understanding of
> continuations?    
> > Some thing are OK to learn by trial and error.  I wonder if  
> > mishandling continuations leads to enlightenment or insanity.
> 
> Programming the web-server is very easy and can be
> done with just the most general notion of how continuations work. For 
> me the hardest thing was the suspension of disbelief necessary to
> ignore the "http is stateless" mantra and design web-apps
> that internally look pretty much like desktop ones.

For me the hardest thing is to understand enviroment visibility. That is
what parts of the environment are shared between two different
continuations within the same servlet or two different servlets and so
on. What are the differences in that aspect between module and unit
based servlets.

I'm slowly getting there, but it is hardish. It is not much of a problem
to do a simple servlet. As an excersise I'm trying to write a
minimalistic "cms" :) sorry. I mean something loosely resembling the
core of drupal (http://drupal.org). So far, the core workflow is coming
very, very slim, which is encouraging, but the security is unknown to
me, since I don't understand what is going on with the scoping -
probably I'm complicating things in my mind.

Vlado