5 ms·

Creating Languages in Racket (2012)

85 points by headalgorithm 8y ago

equalunique 8y ago
Might be my unreliable mobile browser, but this page isn't loading.
- pasbesoin 8y ago
  It's there. Here's a copy that's in the Wayback Machine (aka archive.org). https://web.archive.org/web/20190113223131/https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2012/1/144809-creating-languages-in-racket/fulltext https://web.archive.org/web/20190113223131/https://cacm.acm....
nickmain 8y ago
Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3225718 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3225718
- weberc2 8y ago
  I take it the "(2012)" in the title is wrong since your post is from 2011?
  - Jtsummers 8y ago
    The publication date is January 2012. It was likely released in December.
darkpuma 8y ago
If this subject interests you, I strongly recommend this book: https://beautifulracket.com/introduction.html https://beautifulracket.com/introduction.html
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
fovc 8y ago
Is Racket mostly for teaching and academia, or is it also used in production? If so, are there any particular areas it is strong in? Typed Racket seems like a more cohesive language than Typescript while retaining the dynamic typing escape hatch, so I've been eyeing it for a while.
- jonathal 8y ago
  HN is written in Arc, which is written in Racket :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_(programming_language)
- mruts 8y ago
  Racket is an excellent language for DSL’s, compilers, and interpreters. I’m not aware of any other language that has as sophisticated and powerful tooling as Racket in this regard. It’s also really good for creating GUI’s. As I wrote in a previous HN thread about Racket, I think Racket’s strong suit is developing internal company tooling that is run locally on an individual machine. Great as tooling for analysts, data scientists, etc. I wouldn’t recommend Racket for a server unless it was serving relatively few requests. The JVM would probably be a better choice. From just a quality stand point (documentation, libraries, design) Racket is undoubtedly the best and most advanced lisp on the market. From a practical standpoint, clojure might be better in many cases. Edit: PS: Typed Racket is really quite nice, though I found it to be too restrictive to use all the time. In a language like Haskell you don’t really feel constrained by the type system since the language is designed around it. In Racket this isn’t the case so you quickly discover that the subset of correct programs with static typing is much much smaller than the subset of correct programs with dynamic typing. Fortunately as you mentioned you can use gradual typing and everything works fine. My workflow when I used to use Racket for work was to write a module, putting the types as comments. Afterwards, I would attempt to make those types real, skipping over any functions in which it was too onerous. Also, Racket has runtime contracts that can provide similiar (or more powerful) guarantees as static typing. Though you have to turn them off for production because they absolutely destroy performance (orders of magnitudes slower).

85 points by headalgorithm 8y ago

equalunique 8y ago

Might be my unreliable mobile browser, but this page isn't loading.

pasbesoin 8y ago
It's there. Here's a copy that's in the Wayback Machine (aka archive.org). https://web.archive.org/web/20190113223131/https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2012/1/144809-creating-languages-in-racket/fulltext https://web.archive.org/web/20190113223131/https://cacm.acm....

nickmain 8y ago

Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3225718 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3225718

weberc2 8y ago
I take it the "(2012)" in the title is wrong since your post is from 2011?
- Jtsummers 8y ago
  The publication date is January 2012. It was likely released in December.

darkpuma 8y ago

If this subject interests you, I strongly recommend this book: https://beautifulracket.com/introduction.html https://beautifulracket.com/introduction.html

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

fovc 8y ago

Is Racket mostly for teaching and academia, or is it also used in production? If so, are there any particular areas it is strong in? Typed Racket seems like a more cohesive language than Typescript while retaining the dynamic typing escape hatch, so I've been eyeing it for a while.

jonathal 8y ago
HN is written in Arc, which is written in Racket :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_(programming_language)
mruts 8y ago
Racket is an excellent language for DSL’s, compilers, and interpreters. I’m not aware of any other language that has as sophisticated and powerful tooling as Racket in this regard. It’s also really good for creating GUI’s. As I wrote in a previous HN thread about Racket, I think Racket’s strong suit is developing internal company tooling that is run locally on an individual machine. Great as tooling for analysts, data scientists, etc. I wouldn’t recommend Racket for a server unless it was serving relatively few requests. The JVM would probably be a better choice. From just a quality stand point (documentation, libraries, design) Racket is undoubtedly the best and most advanced lisp on the market. From a practical standpoint, clojure might be better in many cases. Edit: PS: Typed Racket is really quite nice, though I found it to be too restrictive to use all the time. In a language like Haskell you don’t really feel constrained by the type system since the language is designed around it. In Racket this isn’t the case so you quickly discover that the subset of correct programs with static typing is much much smaller than the subset of correct programs with dynamic typing. Fortunately as you mentioned you can use gradual typing and everything works fine. My workflow when I used to use Racket for work was to write a module, putting the types as comments. Afterwards, I would attempt to make those types real, skipping over any functions in which it was too onerous. Also, Racket has runtime contracts that can provide similiar (or more powerful) guarantees as static typing. Though you have to turn them off for production because they absolutely destroy performance (orders of magnitudes slower).