> Message: 2 > Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:57:07 -0500 > From: Slava Pestov <sl...@factorcode.org> > Subject: Re: [Factor-talk] documentation, examples and help... > To: factor-talk@lists.sourceforge.net > Message-ID: > <806f58f20909251757m16927f5oab3e7b34477f5...@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 7:36 PM, Chris Double <chris.dou...@double.co.nz> > wrote: >> I think what's needed, and what a lot of people have asked for, is >> more cookbook style documentation and tutorials. Quick examples of how >> to do small talks. Most of this type of stuff is in peoples blog >> posts. >> >> You're not the first to offer to do what you're doing btw. A few >> people have started, but never finished, moving on to other tasks. > > I would also highly encourage people who want better > tutorials/cookbooks to help write some ;-) > > Slava
I did a lot of complaining about the documentation when I started in on Factor, but I don't anymore. For one thing, I'm starting to get the hang of Factor more now. For another thing, the documentation has improved with this new release that I just downloaded. I will complain however that the browser is still so slow that I wonder if it has crashed while I wait for it. Also, I think there should be something on the main screen of the listener that says: "Press F1 for help" --- so the first-timer doesn't just sit there looking at the flashing cursor in wonderment. I do think that a book would be useful. A good title would be: "Lisp and Forth and Factor, oh my!" The idea would be to present a few non-trivial programs written in all three of these languages and compared to each other. I know Forth a lot better than Factor (about 25 years at it), so I can write the Forth code. I don't know Lisp hardly at all though, so somebody else would have to be Lisp's champion. I am making progress on my slide-rule program (written in Factor) and will present it to you guys one of these days. That would be the kind of program that could be used in the book. We could start out with short programs, move up to middling-sized programs, and then on to longer programs (my slide-rule). We could use some well-known programs (such as Towers of Hanoi and Eight Queens, for our short programs), but we should try to largely present original material (I invented the symtab algorithm myself, so it would be a good middling-sized example). I upgraded these programs to the new version of Factor: www.rosycrew.org/list.factor www.rosycrew.org/symtab.factor www.rosycrew.org/votsim.factor The list program has some improvments, such as being able to convert to and from sequences. The advantage of lists over sequences is that lists are doubly-linked and circular, so they can do more. I like them better than sequences, as I consider them to be more robust, although sequences do seem to be improving in what all functions are provided for working with them. My slide-rule uses lists extensively. If it were included in the book it would likely have to be rewritten to use sequences in order to be more idiomatic. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Come build with us! The BlackBerry® Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9-12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconf _______________________________________________ Factor-talk mailing list Factor-talk@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/factor-talk
