Comment by veltas
4 hours ago
Is it possible you're too stupid to write scheme? Because that's where I think I am, I've also tried and failed to write it a few times.
4 hours ago
Is it possible you're too stupid to write scheme? Because that's where I think I am, I've also tried and failed to write it a few times.
Programming languages, like natural languages, are tools for human beings, not computers. They work around the strengths and weaknesses of a human brain.
It's not a question of being smart or stupid. It's whether the tool fits the task it's applied to and the affordances it gives the user.
Scheme is intended more as a teaching tool than an actual language. Its simplicity is perfect for reasoning about programs. It's less well suited to practical tasks.
About the only really difficult lesson of Scheme is if you use it as a purely declarative language. Imperative features are a natural affordance of the human brain. Working with them is beautiful and alien.
I don't know you, but it seems very unlikely. scheme is a little different because it doesn't really encode or enforce 'standard patterns' that serve as mold that we pour code into. that probably means that its not quite as clear where to start. but at least in r4rs-land its based on a very small number of general simple primitives.
I think it's refreshing change of perspective, and certainly worth pursuing if you're interested at all in in building programming structures rather than just using them. but if its not at all to your taste I wouldn't beat yourself up about it.