At risk of getting myself into trouble here, I would like to add two things to this conversation: 1. I teach a course in the UW biomedical and health informatics graduate program, which is about biomedical computing using Common Lisp, but the disadvantage of that (it IS open to nonmatriculated students) is that the UW is expensive relative to other possible options. I'd love to have some people from the community join in. Here is the URL: http://www.radonc.washington.edu/medinfo/mebi531/ 2. I'd be willing to teach an intro Common Lisp course, either in the context of the UW Experimental College or under other auspices, and I would not necessarily need to get paid for it. In fact, if I got paid I would have to get permission in advance... I have some small and large concrete examples from my own work, which involve numerical computation, interactive graphics, network sockets, and more. If it helped to kickstart some interest, I would be willing to put together a one hour enticement that could be done at a user's group meeting, too. Ira Kalet Brandon J. Van Every wrote:
Daniel J Pezely wrote:
Brandon wrote:
Anyone interested in teaching Lisp?
Not for $0.
Think bigger! Who said anything about not getting paid?
It can and should be separate from a "users' group" structure.
Ok, but how about the horse before the cart? Would like to get a user group healthy and not confuse it for paid instruction.
... I think we have to motivate people to learn on their own, and provide them resources that help them do that. ...
People have to motivate themselves-- you know, "you can lead a horse to water but can't make it drink" and all that.
We could do plenty to make the water more accessible. Even getting an open source Lisp or Scheme system set up and operational is a PITA.
Having used Lisp in the past, I know that it's a steep two year learning curve for Common Lisp. That's two solid years of progressive use and before crossing-over for it becoming one's principal language.
It can be sped up if there's a driving problem with concrete examples.
Where does that leave us? What need would we fill that isn't already addressed elsewhere?
Personal interaction, people with specific domain expertise that can show Lisp or Scheme actually being useful for something.
Cheers, Brandon Van Every
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