Shriram Krishnamurthi shriram

RepoQuest: The Repository as a Textbook

Analysis: The Weaknesses (and Strengths) of Textbooks

Textbooks have been used for learning for centuries. However, in general, and especially in our specific context — computing education — they suffer from some critical defects:

Textbooks are passive. The reader does not know how well they have actually understood something. (Some people, including us, have tried to create “active textbooks”, but these only partially ameliorate the other issues.)
Textbooks tend to be focused on conceptual learning. Often, students want and need hands-on, practical learning.
Textbooks are not an authentic learning environment. When a student goes into the workforce, as a programmer, they will be working with repositories, not textbooks.
In computing learning, it is typical for a learner to also be constructing some software. However, this sits completely separate from the textbook,

	<!DOCTYPE html>
	<!-- Credits: mostly written by GPT-4. -->
	<html>
	<head>
	<title>Quick Items</title>
	<style>
	/* Add your CSS styles here */
	body {
	font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
	}

	#lang racket

	;; I sometimes include a data file in my program source, and
	;; find it useful to sort the data in the source
	;; (e.g., to make it easier to find something, or just to
	;; eliminate the cost of sorting each time the program runs).

	;; This file provides four scripts. Each one accepts a selection
	;; of lines. It does not "parse" the lines: e.g., if you have a
	;; '( at the front of one of the lines, that will not be ignored