<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><br></div><div>Glad to hear DrRacket helped you. Don't hesitate to ask for help, but let me recommend the Racket user list: </div><div><br></div><div> <a href="mailto:users@racket-lang.org">users@racket-lang.org</a></div><div><br></div><div>You can sign up at the Racket <a href="http://lang.org">lang.org</a> web site and the list members are helpful and quick to jump in. </div><div><br></div><div>-- Matthias</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><br><div><div>On Aug 22, 2013, at 1:51 PM, Neal Aggarwal wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">Dear Matthias<div><br></div><div>Thanks for the response. Wow! I am honoured to have been contacted by 'the man himself.'</div><div><br></div><div>I have been a great admirer and have followed your work for many years now. I have always had 'a thing' for LISP ever since I built my first computer in 1978 (from a bunch of transistors) those being the days that we in Africa did not have access to any of the technology that we now carry so flippantly in our pockets! I am working my butt off each and every waking minute trying to get my head around as much of LISP/Scheme as I can and did already figure out that Realm is a jump forward. I had tried to use DrRacket to go through SICP (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs) but got mired getting things to work. DrRacket saved the day for me and I've been learning piece by piece ever since I discovered it.<br> </div><div><br></div><div>I will continue my quest. One day I hope to be able to emulate you, Mathew and Shriram. I have had some success in getting our schools here to begin to embrace DrRacket and will continue with that too.</div> <div><br></div><div>Thank you for taking the time to write to me and for all the wonderful work you and your team are doing.<br><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr">Regards <br><br>Neal<br><div><div style="text-align:left"> <br></div></div></div></div> <br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 7:44 PM, Matthias Felleisen <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:matthias@ccs.neu.edu" target="_blank">matthias@ccs.neu.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"> <br> Dear Neal,<br> <br> thanks for your feedback concerning drracket.<br> <br> As you may know, I designed<br> <br>  -- the course principles that UBC offered<br>  -- the teaching languages because I have studied novice behavior for 20 years<br>  -- and wrote HtDP, the book that encapsulates the knowledge.<br> <br> In contrast, Realm assumes that readers have been exposed to<br> a standard programming course, meaning they experienced errors<br> and error messages and unanticipated behavior from programs.<br> <br> In this sense, Realm is much more of a conventional book on<br> programming in language X. After you finished your Coursera<br> book, you did not know anything about Racket per se. The teaching<br> languages sheltered you from the complexities of standard error<br> messages. One part of Realm is to take this away so that you<br> experience REAL-WORLD PROGRAMMING in addition to the principles of<br> DESIGN.<br> <br> While you may disagree, we have found this carefully scaled approach<br> to work rather well with the majority of students<br> <br> Regards -- Matthias<br> <br> </blockquote></div><br></div></div></div> </blockquote></div><br></body></html>