Re: guile user base

[Linas Vepstas]

On 28 November 2011 03:42,  <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> - but
> that's not my intent for many reasons (mostly, I think guile is more
> useful as a free software extension tool than as a general programming
> learning tool, but this is of topic).

Well, not really. People get involved in stages, steps, ladders. For
example, someone might want to modify some part of gnucash in some
way.  Maybe a few lines of scheme will do. This step taken, the doors
now open to a deeper understanding of guile. Each of these doors in
turn lead to others.  At some point, the casual user becomes an active
member of the community.

So: I think gnucash represents a non-trivial example of guile as an
extension language. I think it would be excellent if there were
tutorials for how to actually extend gnucash, using guile. As far as I
know, none exist.  Ditto lillypond, geda, or aisleriot, if accounting
is not your bag.

I mean: what's the point of an extension language if no one knows how
to use it to extend anything? This is where the code should be laid
bare: its hard to screw with it when its cloaked by the app.  What are
extension best practices?  What paradigm/api/style can can a guile
programmer expect all guile-using apps to provide?  Some standardized,
easy, obvious way to extend an app, in a fashion that works more or
less the same way for all apps?  All this info is missing.

--linas