asked Nov 08 '11

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We are constantly reflecting on the design of Rascal and are interested in your feedback. So here is a question: Which features of Rascal are difficult to learn?

We are interested in specific examples where you have struggled with a Rascal feature. We are also interested in suggestions for improvement. Should the feature be changed? Is the documentation unclear?

Thank you for helping us to make Rascal a great language.

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answered Nov 08 '11

Douwe Kasemier
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updated Nov 08 '11

I'd really like some more code examples in the tutor. The structure of the reference manual is already really good, but often a simple example would help understand the syntax of things a lot.

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I agree with you. Our priorities are (1) to get the documentation correct; (2) to get it complete; (3) to add code examples to each page; (4) to add exercises to each page. But ... this is still a lot of work.

PaulKlint (Nov 09 '11)edit

answered Nov 20 '11

Daan
33 ● 2 ● 8

If you don't know it from another language like Haskell, it is definitely the Algebraic Data Type. E.g. it feels really strange to see constants defined as functions without a body.

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Thanks, any suggestions what we can do to either make ADTs easier or to explain them better?

PaulKlint (Nov 20 '11)edit

Maybe we should just relate them to structs in C when explaining, or classes without methods in c and java? Thats what they are; with a builtin toString method :-)

JurgenVinju (Nov 21 '11)edit

I'm not sure on how to explain this better, but Wikipedia did help me a lot. I think the issue in my case was that it looks familiar, but it is something different than you think it is.

Daan (Nov 21 '11)edit

By the way. I didn't use C for a long time, but an ADT feels to me more like a union than a struct.

Daan (Nov 21 '11)edit

Thx, we will check out the wikipedia explanation too.

JurgenVinju (Nov 21 '11)edit

answered Nov 09 '11

Vadim Zaytsev
63 ● 1 ● 8

I’ve heard once from a student that the EASY paradigm itself was very difficult to comprehend. When I re-explained it with the classic parse-transform-unparse road as an example (instance) of the extract-analyse-synthesise cycle, it clicked, but still I was the one left puzzled because I just assumed that EASY is… well… easy.

Perhaps descriptions provided to students should be different that ones presented at conferences?

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Interesting I also think it is EASY. The lesson: we should provide more concrete examples when describing this paradigm.

PaulKlint (Nov 10 '11)edit

For nonnative speakers perhaps the word "synthesize" doesnt resonate immediately either.

JurgenVinju (Nov 21 '11)edit

Also see the Rascal Tutor.

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Asked: Nov 08 '11

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Last updated: Dec 20 '11

Which features of Rascal are difficult to learn?

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