Could you please update the Arc tutorial to include this stuff, as well as other syntactic features? (For example, the tutorial doesn't have an example of the dot operator.) Nothing crazy, just one line REPL dumps of each feature in action would be very helpful.
It's my first time through The Little Schemer, and I've been using Arc instead of Scheme because... well, because it's just so pretty. I could post my files thus far on a wiki if anyone would care... I'm currently on Chapter 8.
Are you thinking to have at runtime or at edit-time? I ask because my IntelliJ plugin for Arc does this - you just hit cmd-shift-I (on a Mac, at any rate), and a little window pops up with the source code for whatever the cursor is on. Is this what you mean...?
I was thinking at runtime, I.e. in the repl or available via the online help op. It would add greatly to the automatic documentation that currently exists.
Hey, I actually did a presentation on Arc for a weekend gathering in Minneapolis. It may or may not present things the way you're thinking, but you're welcome to lift whatever you'd like, if it would be helpful:
It starts by just showing the same nuts and bolts stuff as PG's Arc tutorial, but then I elaborated on creating macros for creating objects and classes, which I thought would resonate with the target audience.
(Forgive the weird formatting; it's a Powerpoint export from Google Presentations.)
This is just one guy's opinion, and I'm hardly a 133t Lisp hax0r. But I'm not a part of this community to ride the next big wave. I'm here because I'm tired of the next big waves, because they almost always suck. I'm here because I want to be able to latch on to something that actually provides me with some small measure of joy, and that has a chance of having some real, lasting impact.
