Re: Ideas for a Guile tutorial to go with the new site

["Luis Felipe López Acevedo" <felipe.lopez@openmailbox.org>]

On 2015-10-18 10:41, Christopher Allan Webber wrote:
> 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?

Absolutely. This is in line with my thoughts about the intro tutorial.

The "Getting up and running" section looks like a good part to start 
materializing the tutorial.

-- 
Luis Felipe López Acevedo
http://sirgazil.bitbucket.org/