[plt-scheme] Better documentation for novice Schemers

On Sat, Sep 26, 2009 at 2:49 PM, Jon Rafkind <rafkind at cs.utah.edu> wrote:
> I guess you can look at code on planet or in the collects directory of the
> PLT tree, but I'm beginning to think a more expansive explanation section of
> the docs would be useful. Something like extremely detailed comments about
> "real code".

I've been thinking the same thing. The Guide was supposed to replace
How to Use Scheme, which was supposed to be a cookbook of sorts. The
problem is that, while the Guide is more readable than the Reference,
it's still kind of dense in terms of content while still managing to
be sparse in terms of realistic code examples that can get a novice up
to speed. And there really is the need for a reference that
experienced programmers in other languages can turn to when they hear
how cool Scheme is.

Something like "Dive Into Python" would be really nice. That book
starts most chapters with a small program that does something
interesting and then spends the rest of the chapter explaining the new
constructs that the program introduces. The big advantage is that you
get to see idiomatic code, and you get to see constructs used in
context.

I'd be happy to help work on such a thing, but I'm enough of a Scheme
newbie myself that I'd need others to suggest a reasonable sequencing
of constructs, programs that would show them off, and be willing to
critique the example code.

Todd