create intro Clojure material using Logo

[echeran]

The following idea is on the basis that I've previously created a set of lessons in the style of a textbook and a 2 hr basic Clojure workshop among other teaching experiences...

When trying to introduce new people to Clojure (students new to programming, curious/interested experienced coworkers), they stop learning when they reach a point where the concept is too difficult/unfamiliar.

So far, there seem to be 2 groups I can think of: beginners in programming, and experienced programmers.

For the first group, Logo is a great way to learn. The key to engage such students once they reach mastery of basic Logo concepts and teach them more / more advanced programming concepts. Doing so in a gradual way, so as not to lose these learners, is one of the original motivating reasons for clojure-turtle. An approach that works for beginners should work for anyone.

For the second group, they look for an approach that makes them feeling like they're learning faster than average. They expect that their programming experience gives them a basis of comparison that they can use to intuit a new language's concepts, syntax, etc. as they bypass "beginner" material. Currently, if there is a stumbling block, it is that most programmers' experience currently does not yet include languages the look or behave like Clojure. The perceived gap here is a gentle intro to Clojure syntax and FP at a pace that assumes knowledge of basic programming concepts. One way to do this is to create a set of materials designed as, "Here's some concept implemented in Python, now here is the equivalent in Clojure".

Although the materials for the groups outline above would be different in nature, the structure of the lessons should be able to achieve convergence -- over time, the learners in the first group should eventually be able to reach the same mastery of Clojure as in the second group, and everyone should be equally satisfied.