Re: [Chicken-users] Chicken for Python Programmers

[Matthew Welland]

On Monday 29 December 2008 05:21:21 pm Jack Trades wrote:
> After noticing "Chicken for blub programmers" on the wiki some months
> ago, I decided a good way to learn Scheme would be to produce a similar
> document. It's ~50 pages long and written as one large table with various
> sub-headings.  At last count (end of November), it had over 400 solutions
> to about 250 problems in both Chicken and Python, as well as tons of
> links to further documentation and reference material.  It's currently
> still in draft form, which means there's some editing notes and blank
> sections here and there.
>
> I plan to continue working on the document, but I've been sidetracked
> developing a DSL for an evolutionary programming language, which I also
> plan to document in this format.  If you'd like to comment or contribute
> I'd be appreciative and would eventually be willing to translate it to
> wiki format if there is an interest.
>
> Unfortunately I used this document as a test of Google Docs, and under
> all but the most ideal circumstances the formatting sucks.  Nevertheless
> you can find the raw Google Docs version at the address below.  If you
> like it, hate it or would like to see additions please comment.
>
> http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgxzmhv_579j3m5kc5
>
Jack, I think your doc is potentially really useful for beginners. I haven't 
read the whole thing but did notice the following:

"Construction of a Populated Dictionary
Chicken:  I'm sure there's a standard way to do this, but did not find it in 
a quick search."

AFAIK there is no readable representation of a hash table. The closest you 
can get is by using an alist:

csi> (hash-table-ref (alist->hash-table '( ("a" . 1)("b" . 2))) "a")
1

I'd like to see a yaml reader/writer egg but haven't had time to tackle it 
myself.

Matt
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