Comments on: Learning by experimenting (with Scheme) http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/ My opinion on Teaching, Programming, Technology and Web 2.0 in Mauritius Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:05:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Scheme for Fun!! « :: Ashesh Ramjeeawon :: http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-165820 Scheme for Fun!! « :: Ashesh Ramjeeawon :: Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:53:59 +0000 http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-165820 [...] main reason for me to have such a keen interest to learn Scheme lies in the following quote: “Learning by experimenting is the best way to learn. Learning programming using Scheme is [...] [...] main reason for me to have such a keen interest to learn Scheme lies in the following quote: “Learning by experimenting is the best way to learn. Learning programming using Scheme is [...]

]]> By: avinash http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-117015 avinash Sat, 01 Mar 2008 19:32:41 +0000 http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-117015 Thanks for this very nice comment. It's great to know that students appreciate the way I teach. My objective is to make you become autonomous and be able to learn any programming language or paradigm by yourself and have fun in the process... Thanks for this very nice comment.

It’s great to know that students appreciate the way I teach. My objective is to make you become autonomous and be able to learn any programming language or paradigm by yourself and have fun in the process…

]]> By: Insah http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-116996 Insah Sat, 01 Mar 2008 17:28:58 +0000 http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-116996 Hi Mr Meetoo, Thanks for inspiring n motivating us in programming. Im a 2nd year student in Electronics and Computer Science at UOM and i study programming languages with u. I love scheme a lot. I have a different and interesting view and trend of thought of programming, and it is becoming a way of life instead of just cramming syntax in our heads only to pass exams. Im very happy to have you as a lecturer who teaches us the essence of things and how blissful it is. Every friday from 9am to 11am, i have a great time with the way you teach us computer science which is not just science but a ingenious invention of man that when he uses it correctly, he can do almost anything. It would be great if u keep on motivating and helping us to achieve greatness. Have a nice evening. Regards, Insah Bhurtah ECS 2 UOM Hi Mr Meetoo,
Thanks for inspiring n motivating us in programming. Im a 2nd year student in Electronics and Computer Science at UOM and i study programming languages with u. I love scheme a lot. I have a different and interesting view and trend of thought of programming, and it is becoming a way of life instead of just cramming syntax in our heads only to pass exams. Im very happy to have you as a lecturer who teaches us the essence of things and how blissful it is. Every friday from 9am to 11am, i have a great time with the way you teach us computer science which is not just science but a ingenious invention of man that when he uses it correctly, he can do almost anything. It would be great if u keep on motivating and helping us to achieve greatness. Have a nice evening.

Regards,
Insah Bhurtah
ECS 2
UOM

]]> By: avinash http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-115650 avinash Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:41:07 +0000 http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-115650 Hi Kailash, check <a href="http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/02/25/learning-scheme-with-me/" rel="nofollow">this blog entry</a>. Hi Kailash, check this blog entry.

]]> By: Avinash Meetoo: Blog » Blog Archive » Learning Scheme with me http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-115539 Avinash Meetoo: Blog » Blog Archive » Learning Scheme with me Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:20:08 +0000 http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-115539 [...] As you all know by now, I am currently teaching the Scheme programming language to my 2nd year students as a means to master the functional programming paradigm. [...] [...] As you all know by now, I am currently teaching the Scheme programming language to my 2nd year students as a means to master the functional programming paradigm. [...]

]]> By: kailash http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-115143 kailash Sun, 24 Feb 2008 04:30:43 +0000 http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-115143 So how did scheme turn up to be? Do they like it? So how did scheme turn up to be? Do they like it?

]]> By: avinash http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-103932 avinash Fri, 01 Feb 2008 20:10:12 +0000 http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-103932 Excellent! Dijkstra always told people that he was a programmer even though he was one of the gods of Computer Science. I guess most people are not like Dijkstra: they feel Programmer is not a good title and that Manager or Project Leader sound much better :-) Excellent!

Dijkstra always told people that he was a programmer even though he was one of the gods of Computer Science. I guess most people are not like Dijkstra: they feel Programmer is not a good title and that Manager or Project Leader sound much better :-)

]]> By: Raj http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-103655 Raj Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:16:23 +0000 http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-103655 Avinash My niece is waiting for her HSC results and is considering a degree in IT hence my challenge to her to make sure she'll be up to the standard and not be one of those who finish a degree and want to become a manager or project leader after 6 months programming. Avinash

My niece is waiting for her HSC results and is considering a degree in IT hence my challenge to her to make sure she’ll be up to the standard and not be one of those who finish a degree and want to become a manager or project leader after 6 months programming.

]]> By: avinash http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-103488 avinash Fri, 01 Feb 2008 05:37:38 +0000 http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-103488 To Raj: How old is your niece? To Alex and Kailash: Thanks for your comment Alex. I also have some problems with the parentheses but using a good editor like the one in DrScheme (which features automatic indenting and parentheses-matching) makes life easier. I don't see the parentheses after some time. Indentation is much for important for comprehension. And I've discovered the Ctrl-I shortcut in DrScheme which automatically indents your program and make errors so much obvious... Thanks Alex for your idea of giving meaningful and interesting projects to the students. I'll explore some of the most interesting Ruby libraries. As for the paper by Damian Conway, it's a nice read (I read it some months ago). But it's easy to criticize but so much more difficult to come up with something perfect. Scheme is not perfect. But it's good enough for introducing functional programming and this is sufficient for me. As for "would the non-Hackers like Scheme?", I never equated Scheme with hackers. For me, Scheme is the programming language invented to introduce programming. I learnt Scheme in my first year of university in France. I know this is also done at MIT and Berkeley. There must be a reason. Incidentally Ruby, Haskell, Python etc. are also nice. In fact, any language with a REPL is good enough to be used to introduce programming like I wrote above. Kailash, did you read Richard Gabriel's <a href="http://www.dreamsongs.com/ArtOfLisp.html" rel="nofollow">essay</a>? To Raj:

How old is your niece?

To Alex and Kailash:

Thanks for your comment Alex. I also have some problems with the parentheses but using a good editor like the one in DrScheme (which features automatic indenting and parentheses-matching) makes life easier.

I don’t see the parentheses after some time. Indentation is much for important for comprehension. And I’ve discovered the Ctrl-I shortcut in DrScheme which automatically indents your program and make errors so much obvious…

Thanks Alex for your idea of giving meaningful and interesting projects to the students. I’ll explore some of the most interesting Ruby libraries.

As for the paper by Damian Conway, it’s a nice read (I read it some months ago). But it’s easy to criticize but so much more difficult to come up with something perfect. Scheme is not perfect. But it’s good enough for introducing functional programming and this is sufficient for me.

As for “would the non-Hackers like Scheme?”, I never equated Scheme with hackers. For me, Scheme is the programming language invented to introduce programming. I learnt Scheme in my first year of university in France. I know this is also done at MIT and Berkeley. There must be a reason.

Incidentally Ruby, Haskell, Python etc. are also nice. In fact, any language with a REPL is good enough to be used to introduce programming like I wrote above.

Kailash, did you read Richard Gabriel’s essay?

]]> By: Kailash http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-103220 Kailash Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:22:42 +0000 http://www.noulakaz.net/weblog/2008/01/31/learning-by-experimenting-with-scheme/#comment-103220 Worked on building an introductory programming language for my undergrad project some years back. I thought that I'd ask a true hacker, Richard Stallman about the features he might foresee in the "ideal" introductory programming language. Interestingly he replied that there was little need to create anything... use Scheme. hehe! Damian Conway, the man behind OO Perl and who also happens to work on introductory programming at Monash University, however thought that Stallman was wrong. Scheme is semantically challenging for beginners. You cannot expect students to make sense of a series of nested brackets. His paper about seven deadly sins of introductoy programming language design was somewhat the basis behind my dissertation. Maybe now we can have some insight which is which. Would the non "hackers" like scheme? Worked on building an introductory programming language for my undergrad project some years back.

I thought that I’d ask a true hacker, Richard Stallman about the features he might foresee in the “ideal” introductory programming language. Interestingly he replied that there was little need to create anything… use Scheme. hehe!

Damian Conway, the man behind OO Perl and who also happens to work on introductory programming at Monash University, however thought that Stallman was wrong. Scheme is semantically challenging for beginners. You cannot expect students to make sense of a series of nested brackets. His paper about seven deadly sins of introductoy programming language design was somewhat the basis behind my dissertation.

Maybe now we can have some insight which is which. Would the non “hackers” like scheme?

]]>