Much as I am a fan of Racket, this is not a friendly intro. It is a speedrun.
When an introduction says “friendly”, I don’t expect it to assume that I know what lambda is.
When an introduction says “friendly”, I don’t expect syntax rules to appear in it. At all.
It is rich with information, to the point, and presented in a way that a motivated and competent reader can immediately know something about and be useful with racket. That’s how it was for me anyways; someone who didn’t know anything about racket before reading through this.
Wtf kind of intro to a programming language doesn’t include syntax rules? We are all informed, experienced, technologically inclined people here. Not dumb children.
I’m struggling to see your comment as anything more than contrarian babble.
> Wtf kind of intro to a programming language doesn’t include syntax rules?
PP could have been more clear and say syntax-rules (note the dash), which means macros. Macros are usually considered an advanced topic.
Thanks for the clarification! It makes much more sense seeing the term "macro".
> Wtf kind of intro to a programming language doesn’t include syntax rules?
Given that most languages don’t have syntax rules or anything like it, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that most language introductions/overviews/tutorials don’t mention it.
Most? I question that.
In fact, what languages can you say do not have syntax rules?
C, python, java, Fortran, ruby, Common Lisp, Haskell, go, zig (I think), forth, swift, cobol, pretty much any language that doesn’t directly descent from Scheme.
Python and Java do not have any similar constructs
syntax-rules refers specifically to Racket macros.
Since macros are a very important part of Racket, complaining that a friendly introduction mentions them is [insert non-friendly characterization].
When I see "friendly introduction," I don't expect to see a deadhead sticker front and center. But I guess if you're an actual Deadhead it's not that startling. ;-)
TBF, deadheads are pretty friendly (just stay away from the Nitrous Mafia) LOL.
not to mention a skull? is it a racket thing (or lisp in general thing) to spoof the grateful dead logo?
It used to be the official logo. The project was called PLT Scheme at the time.
The evolution of the logo:
https://users.cs.northwestern.edu/~robby/logos/
The skull didn't last long.