  The finite-dimensional restricted simple Lie algebras of characteristic p > 5
are classical or of Cartan type. The classical algebras are analogues of the
simple complex Lie algebras and have a well-advanced representation theory with
important connections to Kazhdan-Lusztig theory, quantum groups at roots of
unity, and the representation theory of algebraic groups. We survey progress
that has been made towards developing a representation theory for the
restricted simple Cartan-type Lie algebras, discuss comparable results in the
classical case, formulate a couple of conjectures, and pose a dozen open
problems for further study.
