[Jscheme-devel] Re: JScheme

[Timothy H. <tim...@ma...>]

On Thursday, June 13, 2002, at 05:01 AM, Joseph Kim wrote:

> Hi Professor Hickey,
> =A0
> I am a graduating=A0undergrad in computer science at UCLA.=A0 I have=20=

> recently discovered JScheme and the work you have been doing to apply=20=

> it.=A0 Thank you for your contributions.=A0 I think the work you are =
doing=20
> is great.
Thanks!

> =A0
> I have always thought introduction to programming courses should focus=20=

> on thinking algorithmically.=A0 I felt my intro courses at UCLA =
focused=20
> needless on syntax of=A0C++.=A0=A0Memorizing libraries is useless but=20=

> learning to use and create libraries is invaluable.=A0 With JScheme =
and=20
> your approach to teaching I think you have=A0address many of=A0my =
concerns=20
> with intro courses.
I hadn't thought about using Jscheme as a replacement for C++ or Java in=20=

standard Cosi courses, but its a good idea!
I agree that the syntax of C++ distracts from the basic algorithmic=20
ideas and that library creation is a key skill. Indeed,
it is the same abstraction mechanism used for procedures but extended to=20=

more complex domains.

> =A0
> To further your work I think two things would be useful.=A0 Writing a=20=

> book and creating a software package that will provide the development=20=

> environment.=A0
I am currently working on a book for non-Cosi majors in which they learn=20=

to use Jscheme to write applets
and servlets. Ken and I have talked about writing a book on Jscheme for=20=

Java programmers and have made some
initial plans, but it sounds like you are talking about a=20
Jscheme-as-a-first-language book targetted to Cosi majors.
Is that right? What kind of book are you envisioning?

I agree that a good development environment for Jscheme is needed.
We've been doing a little work on building a paren matching IDE (e.g.=20
you can follow the TATool link
from my webpage http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~tim which leads to a=20
groupware tool for building Jscheme
programs and getting TA assistance online), another demo is an applet at
   http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~tim/jscheme/src/jlib/demo/SchemeEval.html
but this still has bugs.....

It would also be nice to have a debugger for Jscheme. Currently we have=20=

a rudimentary backtrace that gets printed
when an exception is thrown and not caught.  The Dr Scheme system at=20
www.plt-scheme.org has a very nice
debugger, especially for novice programmers. I believe there are general=20=

purpose Scheme debuggers that will
wrap Scheme code in debugging shells that enable stepping, breakpoints,=20=

stack examination, etc. We have some
Scheme interpreters written in Scheme that could be used to implement a=20=

Scheme debugger also.

What kind of development environment would you like to see for Jscheme?



> Towards these two ends, I would like to help out.=A0 If you need any=20=

> assistance in furthering JScheme, I hope I can be of assistance.
> =A0
> Regards,
> Joseph Kim
>

Thanks for the feedback Joseph.
If you have some spare time, I think a development environment for=20
Jscheme
would be a useful tool to have in the Jscheme toolbox. It would be=20
especially
nice if it was implemented entirely in Jscheme! Lets keep talking about=20=

this.

----Tim---

P.S. I've cc'd this reply to the jscheme-devel mailing list, I hope you=20=

don't mind.