Hello!
So I've been thinking a bit about what a friendly "intro" tutorial
would
look like that could fit with the direction the site is heading. I
came
up with some ideas I wanted to capture before I totally lost them.
I think we can keep with the kids playing with robot toys idea and
stretch that a bit. Here's a brief outline:
- Intro
- Getting up and running
(picture of one of those robots with a wind-up-toy-key on its
back?)
+ How to start guile from the command line, add readline support
+ Editor setup, simple
Details how to write some scheme with any editor, maybe makes a
free software editor recommendation of something simple that's
not
too hard to get going with Scheme. Would GEdit work?
Shows how to write a file and then import it at the REPL,
then reload it as you add things.
Teaches the basic idea of writing code in a file + playing at the
REPL.
+ Editor setup, advanced: Emacs + Geiser
Explains that this is the advanced, but recommended version.
It takes some time to get started with if you are not already an
emacs user, but you may want to come back to it later. Explains
how to set things up.
- First steps
Much like The Little Schemer uses food as variable names, I think
it's a good idea to stick with abstract fun concepts. Here, I
think
it would be great to continue along with the "Guile is a
playground,
come play!" idea by using toys as variable names, and defining
procedures that evoke nostalgia for older programmers and sound
playful for younger ones.
Some ideas:
+ could use building lists as putting toys in and out of a toy
chest
(define toy-chest '(robot teddy-bear doll-with-comb
toy-soldier))
+ could have a simple-bake-oven set of procedures that takes
arguments like flavor and dessert-type:
#> (define (simple-bake-oven flavor dessert-type)
(format #f "Yum! You made a tasty ~a flavored ~a!"
flavor dessert-type))
#> (simple-bake-oven "banana" "cake")
$20 = "Yum! You made a tasty banana flavored cake!"
and then we can increase the advanced features a bit:
#> (define* (fancy-bake-oven flavor dessert-type
#:optional topping)
(if topping
(format #f "Yum! You made a tasty ~a flavored ~a
covered in ~a!"
flavor dessert-type topping)
(format #f "Yum! You made a tasty ~a flavored ~a!"
flavor dessert-type)))
#> (fancy-bake-oven "mint" "ice cream" "chocolate fudge")
$21 = "Yum! You made a tasty mint flavored ice cream covered
in chocolate fudge!"
Yes... the fancy bake oven version is so fancy it can even bake
ice cream! ;)
+ Introduce modules as extensions for our robots.
I'm sure there are other things! But I think a tutorial in this style
might be fun, and would fit the site well. And the desire for a good
tutorial has been expressed many times.
What do others think?