scheme, isetl, ...

[Jan Hlavacek <lahvak@math.ohio-state.edu>]

Poring over the available software list,  I realized that we don't have
scheme there.  There is a lot of scheme implementations,  some of them
are more "student friendly" then others,  maybe DrScheme
(http://www.cs.rice.edu/CS/PLT/packages/drscheme/) would be a good
choice?  What do "schemers" on the list think about it.

For non-schemers,  scheme is very nice lisp based programming language,
which is used at a lot of schools to teach programming classes.  A list
of schools that use scheme can be found for example at
http://www.schemers.com/schools.html .
General information about scheme is at http://www.schemers.org/ .

I think that scheme can be used not only for computer science classes,
but also in other parts of the curriculum.  For example it's treatment
of functions as first class objects is excellent for teaching concept of
functions as objects in math.  In fact,  I believe that scheme can be
used in place of ISETL in math clases.  The advantage of ISETL is its
notation,  which is very close to standard mathematical notation.  The
advantage of scheme is that it can be used in other classes,  like in
language classes for studying grammar,  in biology and physics for doing
computer simulations and so on.  

Speaking about ISETL,  it seems that I finally have an e-mail address to
somebody who should know what has to be done to bring the unix version
of ISETL up to date.  As soon as I have some concrete information,  I'll
post it here.

-- 
Jan Hlav\'{a}\v{c}ek
lahvak@math.ohio-state.edu  (Blind Carbon Copies will bounce)
www: http://www.math.ohio-state.edu/~lahvak/