Progress towards Learning Syllabus

[colinleach]

Concept taxonomy was discussed in issue #198. This issue is about implementation, borrowing extensively from the earlier issue.

A tracking spreadsheet for Concepts and Concept Exercises is available. A flowchart of how it might fit together is shown below.

Some that are already in progress or planned

This is a very fluid plan and will doubtless continue to change frequently!

• Boxes in solid red will almost certainly need a new concept exercise created.
• Others marked ?? with red borders can probably fork something suitable from other tracks (TODO).
• Those with green borders have had PRs submitted for both the exercise and the associated concept.
• Those in solid green have had both merged.

graph TD
    
start(("Start")) --basics--> basics["lasagna"]
style basics fill:#0f0

basics --booleans--> booleans["annalyns-infiltration"]
style booleans fill:#0f0

booleans --conditionals--> conditionals["cars-assemble<br/>(vehicle-purchase)"]
style conditionals fill:#0f0

conditionals --vectors--> vectors["elyses-enchantments"]
style vectors fill:#0f0

switch -.loops.-> loops["mixed-juices"]
style loops stroke:#0f0

conditionals --switch--> switch["blackjack"]
style switch stroke:#0f0

vectors --set-operations--> set-operations["ozans-playlist"]
style set-operations stroke:#0f0

name-attribute --lists--> lists["need-for-speed"]

vectors --vector-filtering--> vector-filtering["elyses-analytic-enchantments<br/>bird-watcher"]
style vector-filtering stroke:#0f0

vector-filtering --name-attribute--> name-attribute["??"]
style name-attribute fill:#f00,color:#fff

vector-filtering --vector-functions--> vector-functions["??"]
style vector-functions stroke:#f00

vector-filtering --nothingness--> nothingness["name-badges"]
style vector-filtering stroke:#0f0

vectors --strings--> strings["log-levels"]
style strings stroke:#0f0

strings --nothingness--> nothingness["name-badges"]
style nothingness stroke:#0f0

strings --randomness--> randomness["captains-log"]
style randomness stroke:#0f0

strings --regular-expressions--> regular-expressions["regular-chatbot"]

lists --lapply-sapply--> lapply-sapply["??"]
vector-functions --lapply-sapply--> lapply-sapply["??"]
style lapply-sapply fill:#f00,color:#fff

vector-functions --matrices-arrays--> matrices-arrays["??"]
style matrices-arrays fill:#f00,color:#fff

style apply-functions fill:#f00,color:#fff

lapply-sapply --dataframes--> dataframes["??"]
style dataframes fill:#f00,color:#fff

matrices-arrays --dataframes--> dataframes
dataframes -.factors.-> factors["??"]
style factors fill:#f00,color:#fff

dataframes -.apply-functions.-> apply-functions["??"]

vector-functions --functions--> functions["??"]
nothingness --functions--> functions["??"]
style functions fill:#f00,color:#fff

nothingness --errors--> errors["factory-sensors "]

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This isn't quite as tangled as it may appear.

Some tentative future concepts to be slotted in

graph TD
    
todo(("TODO")) --> classes
todo --> pipes
todo --> macros
todo --> raw-type
todo --> environments

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[colinleach]

Update, November 2025

Though some progress was made on the syllabus, and there was general goodwill towards it, the effort stalled.

There are currently about 20 open PRs for further concepts and concept exercises. I previously marked these as draft, and now I intend to close them.

Reasons:

1. Working on other tracks has been a good learning experience, and I think I now know several ways to improve the original content.
2. Since these were written, many of the tidyverse libraries have been added to the test runner. Packages like stringr, purrr, lubridate and dplyr extensively change/improve the way R can be written, even for relatively simple Exercism practice exercises, and the Concept documents need to reflect this.

All the content is still available in a public repo, and this will become the most up-to-date version. I hope to add revisions as I find the time (and energy). Not least because I want these notes (the about.md docs) for my own use.