This isn’t exactly a question but I’m not sure where I should put it. I’ll share it here and hope I can be forgiven for not categorizing it better.
I don’t know if anyone else uses IDoRecall but I use it to build myself flashcards for when I’m learning a new concept. I’ve started building Alloy learning flashcards and if others are interested in seeing them (or better yet contributing flashcards) I would like to talk to you.
Again, apologies because I realize this is a little bit off-topic. If there’s a better place to share/mention this sort of thing, please feel free to let me know.
I would be very interested in this. I think Alloy is a very interesting way to describe structures very concisely. I’ve started to create modules that capture concepts like Git, PKI, Github security.
It is a very different use case since normally formal languages are seen as more obfuscating for humans than elucidating.
I would be very interested in what you do with Alloy flash cards.
Good to hear from you Peter. I’m not sure exactly how I would go about sharing flash cards but I’ll see what I can figure out. Up till now I’ve been using IDoRecall pretty much for myself to help me to learn new ideas.
I have been defining flash cards to remind myself of the difference between various operators (+ vs &) and the dot operator for how it applies to various levels of abstraction (that is scalar vs. tuple vs. relation). NB on that last statement I’m going from memory and if I’ve got it wrong it’s my faulty memory 
I think I actually misunderstood you a bit You’re using flashcards to learn Alloy. I had mistakenly interpreted it that you used Alloy as the language on the flash card to learn other concepts … Which I think is an intriguing idea.
That said, I am interested also in how people learn Alloy so if you can share something, please do.
Yeah sadly one has to sign up for IDoRecall (IDR) before I can share anything. There’s a free tier but still I can understand how others might not want to sign up (even for free) due to privacy concerns and such.
The idea of IDR is based in recent research in learning. One of the best techniques to learn something and have it stick with you is what’s called “Retrieval Practice”. That is trying to recall a concept without referring to reference material. Even if you get it wrong, the act of trying to remember helps to cement the concept in your long term memory which is ultimately where we want it to be. Interesting thing is that scientists have found that carefully spaced repetition can aid in learning more quickly too. IDR not only lets you practice retrieving the idea but it also figures out based upon one’s self rating how long to wait to have you practice the concept again.
For example, this morning I was looking at some of my recalls. This is one of them:
Given the tuples S = {(a1,b1)} and T = {(b1,c1)} what is S.T?
And, of course I have the right answer there:
{(a1,c1)}
I hope that’s right 
But IDR shows me the question and lets me enter an answer and then displays the right answer when I’m ready so I can tell if I’ve gotten it right or not.
There are several online “flash card” apps–IDR is just one of them but I think it’s one of the best ones available. The point is to get in that retrieval practice to reinforce the information in one’s long term memory.
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I’ve created a an IDoRecall group, could you share your cards? Love to explore this a bit further.
http://idr.link/58d9n2tf/y_PETER
Hi Peter,
I’d be happy to share but the link isn’t taking me to your group. It’s mentioning something about a group invite code? If you’d rather not share the invite code with the entire world feel free to email me at catenacci@ieee.org.
You can use the link http://idr.link/58d9n2tf/y_PETER as the invitation code. Bit bizarre but I tested it. Probably a bug.
Ah–thanks for that Peter!
I’ve shared the recalls I’ve created so far with the group! Please let me know if you have any feedback and feel free to share any Alloy recalls you create!