[plt-scheme] Re: Colleges using DrScheme

On Thu 13 Jul 2006 12:43, Patrick Collison <patrick at collison.ie> writes:

> Hi Matt,
>
> On 13 Jul 2006, at 11:32, Matt Jadud wrote:
>
>> It's a no-brainer; the tool is far superior, IMHO, to the MIT/Emacs
>> combination. I could be more concise/provide more info in support
>> of your argument if you like... but it will be more of an
>> "experience report" than anything else.
>
> Some sort of experience report would be great -- I think that's
> exactly the kind of thing they're looking for. At the moment, even
> though I've answered most of the questions raised, there still seems
> to be a feeling among of the guys here that DrScheme is too young,
> experimental and immature. Any evidence to the contrary would, of
> course, be very helpful.

We have used various versions of DrScheme for the introductory course
at the University of Tübingen for multiple years.  About 200 students
attend this course and a big fraction of these students install
DrScheme on their notebooks and home PCs.  I didn't receive real
complaints or reports on technical problems with DrScheme last year.
So, from my experience it's very stable!

I remember that a very small number of students complained about slow
execution speed and long GC pauses.  However, I don't think that this
an issue.  That's more a attendant symptom: This kind of students are
usually semi-skilled and disappointed because we don't teach C++ in
the intro course.  So, one of their typical reactions is to criticize
DrScheme for being slow or for not being relevant in practice.

-Eric
-- 
"Excuse me --- Di Du Du Duuuuh Di Dii --- Huh Weeeheeee" (Albert King)