How to include another file into a Pie language file in racket? - racket

When writing in the Pie language within racket (i.e., a file starting with #lang pie) is there a way to include another file into the current file? I.e., something like #include "common.pie".

This more a question about pie than about racket.
According to the documentation of #lang pie the answer is no.
https://docs.racket-lang.org/pie/index.html
There is neither an include or an require in the list of available forms.
Consider sending a feature request to the authors of Pie.

Related

Racket - is it possible to define and use the same language in a single file?

I like to write code using org-mode and ob-racket. It works quite well for my purposes (mostly pragmatic scripting and solving code challenges as I slowly learn the patterns of this cool language). I am trying to understand language creation and a limitation is that ob-racket as is will only ever generate a single file for me, yet every example of creating a custom language I can find (largely just Beautiful Racket) uses separate files for the language definition and its usage.
I would assume - this being lisp after all - that it is possible to define a custom reader and/or a custom extender and then use them all in the same file. Can someone give me an example of how to do this or is it not doable?

Include modules in racket

I created a module (game.rkt) in Racket in which there is my game logic; in this file I define several variables, functions, threads...
I need to embed that module inside another one (gui.rkt) and start the game (game.rkt) from gui.rkt.
How do I do that?
gui.rkt: You need to provide the definitions you want other modules to be able to use. Definitions aren't visible outside the module, by default. If you've defined functions foo and bar that you want to provide: (provide foo bar).
game.rkt: (require "gui.rkt").
This assumes files are in the same directory.
For more details see the Guide sections about require and provide. Both have a number of options -- Racket's module system is one of its strongest features -- but the simple case is simple.

Racket: enable scribble language in sub module

#lang racket/base
(module x scribble/text
#(display 123))
It seems like #lang statements are not valid in nested sub-modules, and the expanded module version above is missing something:
error: module: no #%module-begin binding in the module's language
update:
looks like this more or less works, but is there a better way? does scribble do something with output ports that isn't being handled?
#lang racket/base
(module x scribble/text/lang
(#%module-begin
#reader scribble/reader #list{
hi
#(+ 1 456)
}))
First, your code has a redundant #%module-begin which can be removed.
#lang does several things -- one is control the semantics of the file
by determining the set of initially imported bindings, and that's
something that the module form has done before #lang came up. With
submodules, it became possible to use module for parts of a file too.
However, #lang can also determine the reader that parses the file, and
that's not possible to do with submodules, so you're stuck with only one
toplevel #lang to set the parser for the whole file.
(Sidenote: There is a technical reason for that. A #lang reader reads
the rest of the file until it reaches an eof value, so a nested
#lang would require getting an eof value before getting the end of
the file, or adding a new kind of eof-like value. That means that it's
a change that should be done carefully -- it's possible to do, of
course, but the need didn't come up often enough. Hopefully it will, in
the future.)
But in your case you don't want a completely new concrete syntax, just
an extension for s-expressions -- and an extension that was chosen to
have a minimal impact on regular code. So in almost all cases it's fine
to just enable the #-form syntax for the whole file, and then use
#-forms where you want it. Since it's just an alternative way for
reading sexprs, you can even use that with module, leading to this
code that doesn't need to use #reader:
#lang at-exp racket/base
#module[x scribble/text/lang]{
hi
#(+ 1 456)
}
(require 'x)
One thing that is a bit strange here is using scribble/text/lang and
not just scribble/text. Usually, #lang foo is exactly the same as
(module x foo ...) after reading the code with foos reader. But in
the case of the scribble/text language there is another difference:
using it as a #lang makes the semantics of the module body be "output
each thing". The idea is that as a language you'll want to spit out
mostly-text files, but as a library you'll want to write code in it
and do the printout yourself.
Since this code uses module, using scribble/text means that you're
not getting the spit-all-out functionality, which is why you need to
explicitly switch to scribble/text/lang. But you could have instead
just do the spitting yourself using the language's output, which would
give you this code:
#lang at-exp racket/base
(module x racket/base
(require scribble/text)
(output #list{
hi
#(+ 1 456)}))
(require 'x)
Note that scribble/text is not used as a language here, since it
doesn't provide enough stuff to be one when used (outside of a #lang).
(Which you've found out, leading to that redundant #%module-begin...)
This version is slightly more verbose, but I'm guessing that it makes
more sense in your case, since using it for some part of the code means
that you want to use it as a library.
Finally, if you really don't want to read the whole file with the #
syntax, only some parts, then the #reader that you've found is
perfectly fine. (And this is made simple with scribble/text that
treats lists as concatenated outputs, so you need just one wrapper for
each chunk of text.)

Selecting student language in Racket source code

I am trying to write a source file for DrRacket that specifies one of the languages from How to Design Programs Teaching Languages (see the Racket documentation). I know I can select such a language in the DrRacket menu, but I would like to specify it using a #lang directive and have DrRacket recognize the language automatically.
I cannot find any documentation about the strings that I need to use instead of racket in the initial line
#lang racket
Where can I find the documentation on this? Or can these languages only be selected from DrRacket's menu?
You should be able to use
#lang htdp/bsl
(or htdp/bsl+, htdp/isl, htdp/isl+, or htdp/asl) but it's "not in a complete shape, yet".

Syntax changes from the examples in 'The Little Schemer' to the real Scheme

I have recently started following the examples from The Little Schemer and when trying out the examples in DrScheme, I have realised that there are some minor syntax changes from the examples in the book to what I can write in DrScheme.
First of all, as a language in DrScheme, I chose Pretty Big (one of the Legacy Languages).
Is this the correct choice for trying the examples in the book?
As regards the syntax changes I have noticed that, for example, I need to prefix the identifiers with a ' in order for them to work.
For example:
(rember 'jelly '(peanut butter jelly))
Are there any more changes (syntactical or not) that I need to be aware of when trying the examples from the 'The Little Schemer' book ?
IIRC, the book uses a different font for quoted pieces of data, and in real Scheme code that requires using quote. As for your use of PLT Scheme -- the "Pretty Big" language is really there just as a legacy language. You should use the Module language, and have all files start with #lang scheme (which should be there by default).
(The "new" way of using different languages in DrScheme is to always be in the Module "language" and specify the actual language using a #lang line.)
See the "Guidelines for the reader" section in the Preface. (I'm looking at the 4th edition here.)