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Announcing the Schematics Scheme Cookbook

After an extensive, scientifically conducted alpha- and beta-testing period, I am pleased to announce the Schematics Scheme Cookbook:

http://schemecookbook.org/

The Cookbook is a collaborative effort to produce time-saving documentation and recipes for using Scheme for common tasks in practical contexts, particularly in commercial environments.

This latest incarnation of the Schematics Scheme Cookbook has been under development, on and off, since March 2004. During that time, in addition to developing the design and infrastructure of the Cookbook, a great deal of content has been contributed. The Cookbook currently contains 174 recipes in 23 chapters, written by over a dozen contributors.

However, there is plenty left to write, so feel free to jump in: read the Author Guide linked from the Cookbook home page, and start contributing!

Scheme Portability

The Cookbook aims to focus on portable Scheme solutions where possible, relying particularly on SRFIs to achieve this. However, many of the kinds of tasks which the Cookbook is intended to address are difficult to implement portably in Scheme, such as GUI programming, network communications, database access, and foreign function interfaces. Where a portable solution is impractical, the Cookbook currently focuses on the use of PLT Scheme. However, we hope to be able to support other implementations in future. For further information on the goals of the Cookbook, see:http://schemecookbook.org/Cookbook/BookIntroduction

Cookbook Technology

The Cookbook is implemented using a wiki (TWiki), and is organized like a printed book, with chapters, sections, and "recipes" which each address a specific requirement. Contributors can contribute recipes to the Cookbook by the usual wiki editing process. Each recipe is classified via a simple form, which allows it to be automatically inserted into the appropriate section and chapter, and added to the various tables of contents. Aside from helping to organize the Cookbook for online navigation, this structure is intended to allow for the possibility of a printed version of the Cookbook in future.