<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Dear Racketeers,<div>I'm (comparatively) young, and so also not familiar with the social protocols of IRC & newsgroups in the world of software development. My basic question is whether there is a place that explains the etiquette of interacting with the Racket & PLT communities. Or perhaps just a few sentences detailing how to use the ListServ effectively? Because you all do seem to be wonderfully active and helpful, but I'm just not sure how to jump in. </div><div><br></div><div>But before you direct me to How to Design Programs: I don't think I'm <i>that</i> much of a n00blet. A representative sample of the sorts of questions I've wanted to ask more experienced people include:</div><div>-- In learning about continuations & how they can be used in web servers, I'm really reminded of Haskell's use of monads to accumulate state. How similar are monads and continuations? Am I falling into some conceptual trap by linking them?</div><div>-- Is there any sort of general practice or prevailing taste in when to use (for example) <b>null</b> vs <b>empty</b> vs <b>(list)</b>? What about <b>(let ([...]))</b> vs <b>(local (define ...))</b>? </div><div>-- When is it appropriate to use RackUnit, and when should Contracts be used instead?</div><div><br></div><div>(it's not necessary to answer these questions now, unless you're eager to; asking them on their own later will probably help keep discussions clear)</div><div><br></div><div>A tiny bit of my context, in the chance that it's helpful: 20-year-old undergrad rewriting a research lab's web app in Racket because I inherited thousands of lines of messy pseudo-OO PHP.</div><div><br></div><div>A preemptive thank you for helping!</div><div>--Josh Tilles</div><div><br></div><div>P.S. Has anyone given any thought to consolidating some of the Racket discussion to a StackExchange site? Or something else of that ilk?</div></body></html>