We're getting ever closer to RacketCon! Recall that this year, we're trying, as an experiment, having an additional block of time for hackathons. We've penciled in the afternoon of Friday, October 28 for this purpose. It will be an open space; no talks are scheduled, and no topic is officially set up. Nonetheless, to help give us at least some structure -- to help ensure that you get some value out of this extra time -- I set up a small poll where people could write down some topics of interest, or questions on the table. The poll has now closed, and I'm happy to share the results. (If you didn't participate in the poll, or if I forgot to include you somehow, no worries -- the purpose of this Discourse thread is to open up the discussion even more.)
Here are the top issues:
- Racketscript (29% of people said they're interested in this!)
- graphics/diagramming
- building new features
- Scribble howto/enhancements
- getting started making a
#lang - getting started with web programming
A couple other topics showed up but received only one vote:
- fix bugs
- get started with macros
- improving pkgs.racket-lang.org
Taking a look at these results, my thoughts are:
- If you're coming to RacketCon and know something about those topics, would you be willing to step forward and lead a breakout session on it? This isn't the same as giving a formal talk, with polished slides, etc. Just take our metaphorical hand and show us a couple of things. In my experience, a genuinely interested audience will be able to generate a lot of discussion even after a small demo.
- The top vote getter, by far, is Racketscript. Is anyone coming to RacketCon who would like to show (some of) us a bit of Racketscript? It doesn't have to be an especially polished demo or anything. No talk; no slides; just a little walkthrough. If you actually use Racketscript on a website, would you be willing to show it to us?
- Concerning fixing bugs and/or building new features: this thread is a chance to be specific. What feature would you like to work on? What bug bothers you? For those of you who are more experienced with Racket devel, perhaps you could make a small list of bugs/features that you think might be fruitfully tackled together at RacketCon.
Please use this thread to expand on these suggestions! I'm not here to come down and impose any particular detailed structure for the afternoon. After all, the whole point is that it's supposed to be an open space whose agenda matches the needs and abilities of the participants who show up. That said, I think we'll get more value out of our time if we spend a bit in advance about what we want to get out of the hackathon. Feel free to add to this thread if there's something you want to learn (more) about. If you've got some experience in a topic and want to share, think about what you can do in advance (e.g., prepare a super simple demo) to help others get some of your Racket-fu.
Happy hackathon(ing)!
Jesse