Re: [racket-users] Thank you Racket!

2018-08-24 Thread Hendrik Boom
On Fri, Aug 24, 2018 at 07:50:26AM -0700, Sanjeev Sharma wrote:
> "Turing is useless" ... 
> 
> While I worked as a programmer I used to complain quite bitterly about 
> university comp sci departments that had NIH (not invented here) syndrome 
> and  a captive audience. 
> 
> I learned Turing as my 2nd programming language.  I'm sure the only reason 
> it could have been taught is the profs & grad students that "invented" 
> (added a few trivial things to Pascal) Turing had great political pull at 
> University of Toronto in that decade. 

If I recall correctly, Turing was a systems language and was use to 
implement Tunis, an early Unix work-alike.  It was a pity it didn't get 
distributed more freely, or we would have had a free OS long before 
Linux.

-- hendrik

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Re: [racket-users] Thank you Racket!

2018-08-24 Thread Sanjeev Sharma
I didn't realize (though I should have) that the comment could be taken 
that way. 

I realize you were not writing anything about the Turing language, but the 
title of the essay triggered some memories for me of what my classmates and 
later my professional colleagues used to talk about.  And for some reason 
this time the title made me laugh (I've read it before and did not have 
that reaction). 

I've been using Racket for all my hobbyist programming for a while so 
there's no possibility that it could not be taught on its own merits 
instead of through influence. 

On Friday, August 24, 2018 at 11:00:30 AM UTC-4, Matthias Felleisen wrote:
>
>
> For everyone else, the essay is NOT about Turing/the language or 
> Turing/the man but Turing, the concept. 
>
> And because it is true that we have monopoly power over students here, not 
> a single required course forces students to use Racket. In our freshman 
> course we use the teaching languages, e
>

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Re: [racket-users] Thank you Racket!

2018-08-24 Thread Matthias Felleisen


For everyone else, the essay is NOT about Turing/the language or Turing/the man 
but Turing, the concept. 

And because it is true that we have monopoly power over students here, not a 
single required course forces students to use Racket. In our freshman course we 
use the teaching languages, explicitly clarify that they are useless for the 
real world, and that we do so to focus on the importance of problem solving, 
code design, and attitude about code design. In PL, we use #lang plai with a 
similar explanation. 

— Matthias





> On Aug 24, 2018, at 10:50 AM, Sanjeev Sharma  wrote:
> 
> "Turing is useless" ... 
> 
> While I worked as a programmer I used to complain quite bitterly about 
> university comp sci departments that had NIH (not invented here) syndrome and 
>  a captive audience. 
> 
> I learned Turing as my 2nd programming language.  I'm sure the only reason it 
> could have been taught is the profs & grad students that "invented" (added a 
> few trivial things to Pascal) Turing had great political pull at University 
> of Toronto in that decade. 
> 
> On Friday, August 24, 2018 at 9:02:47 AM UTC-4, Matthias Felleisen wrote:
> 
> > On Aug 24, 2018, at 5:50 AM, Jérôme Martin  wrote: 
> > 
> > I just read the article by Matt that was posted on Hacker News 
> > (http://felleisen.org/matthias/OnHtDP/index.html) and I wanted to take the 
> > time to thank you all in the PLT/Racket team. 
> > 
> > Thank you for trying (and achieving!) to bring a new approach to teaching 
> > computer science. Improving teaching methods is a hard process and you have 
> > the courage and will to fight for it, against all odds. 
> > I'm glad some people are here to train students into a broader approach to 
> > program design and eventually become way better programmers than we are. 
> > 
> > I discovered Racket one year ago and had the feeling I finally found the 
> > language, and most importantly the community, that brings me hope and make 
> > me feel like computer science is more than just about computers. 
> > You are making a language that feels like writing code is actually a form 
> > of art sometimes, and it makes me see my profession with a new eye. 
> > 
> > (define congrats (map thank plt-team)) 
> > 
> > I wish all of you a great time teaching with Racket. 
> > 
> > I'll be sticking around improving some libs (especially web-server). 
> > 
> > See you around folks :) 
> 
> 
> I am glad you found us. Spread the word and stay around — Matthias 
> 
> 
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> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
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Re: [racket-users] Thank you Racket!

2018-08-24 Thread Sanjeev Sharma
"Turing is useless" ... 

While I worked as a programmer I used to complain quite bitterly about 
university comp sci departments that had NIH (not invented here) syndrome 
and  a captive audience. 

I learned Turing as my 2nd programming language.  I'm sure the only reason 
it could have been taught is the profs & grad students that "invented" 
(added a few trivial things to Pascal) Turing had great political pull at 
University of Toronto in that decade. 

On Friday, August 24, 2018 at 9:02:47 AM UTC-4, Matthias Felleisen wrote:
>
>
> > On Aug 24, 2018, at 5:50 AM, Jérôme Martin  > wrote: 
> > 
> > I just read the article by Matt that was posted on Hacker News (
> http://felleisen.org/matthias/OnHtDP/index.html) and I wanted to take the 
> time to thank you all in the PLT/Racket team. 
> > 
> > Thank you for trying (and achieving!) to bring a new approach to 
> teaching computer science. Improving teaching methods is a hard process and 
> you have the courage and will to fight for it, against all odds. 
> > I'm glad some people are here to train students into a broader approach 
> to program design and eventually become way better programmers than we are. 
> > 
> > I discovered Racket one year ago and had the feeling I finally found the 
> language, and most importantly the community, that brings me hope and make 
> me feel like computer science is more than just about computers. 
> > You are making a language that feels like writing code is actually a 
> form of art sometimes, and it makes me see my profession with a new eye. 
> > 
> > (define congrats (map thank plt-team)) 
> > 
> > I wish all of you a great time teaching with Racket. 
> > 
> > I'll be sticking around improving some libs (especially web-server). 
> > 
> > See you around folks :) 
>
>
> I am glad you found us. Spread the word and stay around — Matthias 
>
>

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Re: [racket-users] Thank you Racket!

2018-08-24 Thread Matthias Felleisen


> On Aug 24, 2018, at 5:50 AM, Jérôme Martin  
> wrote:
> 
> I just read the article by Matt that was posted on Hacker News 
> (http://felleisen.org/matthias/OnHtDP/index.html) and I wanted to take the 
> time to thank you all in the PLT/Racket team.
> 
> Thank you for trying (and achieving!) to bring a new approach to teaching 
> computer science. Improving teaching methods is a hard process and you have 
> the courage and will to fight for it, against all odds.
> I'm glad some people are here to train students into a broader approach to 
> program design and eventually become way better programmers than we are.
> 
> I discovered Racket one year ago and had the feeling I finally found the 
> language, and most importantly the community, that brings me hope and make me 
> feel like computer science is more than just about computers.
> You are making a language that feels like writing code is actually a form of 
> art sometimes, and it makes me see my profession with a new eye.
> 
> (define congrats (map thank plt-team))
> 
> I wish all of you a great time teaching with Racket.
> 
> I'll be sticking around improving some libs (especially web-server).
> 
> See you around folks :)


I am glad you found us. Spread the word and stay around — Matthias

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