7 ms·

I'd be a loyal user of Racket, if it was reasonably easy to use with an IDE similar to VS Code. Emacs is too involved for a casual hobbyist like me, while Dr R

by teh_g 5y ago

I'd be a loyal user of Racket, if it was reasonably easy to use with an IDE similar to VS Code. Emacs is too involved for a casual hobbyist like me, while Dr Racket feels a bit toyish.

swiley 5y ago
Have you tried vanilla Emacs? It doesn't require any configuration to just start using it.
- toolslive 5y ago
  or something preconfigured like spacemacs or prelude. I think the biggest problem of emacs is that it's an entire universe by itself: everything is there in a zillion flavours (which always ALMOST work out of the box) and I don't know which one to pick.
  - swiley 5y ago
    I was explicitly thinking about spacemacs when I wrote that. I guess it might be attractive to a VS code user but it's a lot to manage.
    - Zababa 5y ago
      As a VSCode user, no spacemacs isn't really attractive. What's good about VSCode is that it works really well for all skill level and require almost no learning to start with. Spacemacs (and vanilla emacs) don't really fit that description. To be fair, most IDEs also don't fit that description.
- neonnoodle 5y ago
  The only thing you have to configure is your entire brain. Seriously, for anyone under 40, pressing Ctrl-Z should undo, not hide the window. I say this as a fanatical emacs user. There is nothing straightforward about vanilla emacs for someone whose software expectations have been shaped by the conventions of the last three decades!
  - ryukafalz 5y ago
    I can't speak to its completeness as I haven't used it personally, but Emacs does ship with cua-mode which enables a lot of those keybindings. It's just not enabled by default, as most existing users wouldn't use it.
  - medo-bear 5y ago
    i hated emacs at first for this reason. ctrl-v should be paste, ctrl-c should be copy, right !? now though i have emacs bindings system wide what brought me to emacs first was intrigue - why do people keep saying that this little shitty-looking weird editor is the most powerful program on my computer :) they weren't wrong
  - one_comment 5y ago
    Am under 40. Regularity get annoyed by new windows opening when I just wanted to go down one line (and yes, I have found the gnome emacs input mode setting).
TheOtherHobbes 5y ago
Plain old Common Lisp has similar issues on the Mac. (And possibly Windows too - I haven't looked.) There's supposed a one click dev system installer, but it hasn't been updated for a while. There's a many click recommended collection of tools, but it looks like half a day of work to get it all installed and then you're supposed to use Emacs. You can add a REPL to something like Sublime Text. Or install Atom and go through another convoluted process which launches a Lisp server and etc etc etc. I gave up and got back to work at that point. It might work smoothly if I worked through it all. Then again... it might not. Which is a shame, because I like the look of Lisp very much and I really would like to play with it.
- susam 5y ago
  I think https://portacle.github.io/ https://portacle.github.io/ is quite close to a one click installer. Also, I have shared https://github.com/susam/emacs4cl https://github.com/susam/emacs4cl which provides a quick starter file to set up Emacs for Common Lisp development pretty quickly. Additionally, it explains every line of the quick starter file, in case one is willing to learn how it is setup and customise it for their needs.
- tester89 5y ago
  For Mac at least it shouldn't be that hard if you already have a development environment setup. brew install sbcl. If you want to use Sublime Text, then you can go and install this plugin called Slyblime, and the only change you need to make after that is to edit the preferences to select SBCL as the lisp command in the plugin settings.
- mark_l_watson 5y ago
  Try just installing SBCL using Homebrew and then setup either VSCode or Emacs (or Vi, my last manager lived in Vi when doing Common Lisp and Clojure development).
  - eatonphil 5y ago
    Yep installing any major (and even some of the minor) Common Lisp implementation(s) is very straightforward. Emacs is my regular editor so I do use it when coding lisp but I don't use any extensions other than syntax highlighting (so no REPL or SLIME). I sort of get the desire to use the "one click installers" like portacle but in reality they don't add very much and now you're dependent on a third-party system with less support than the language itself. It does not make sense to say Common Lisp on Mac is broken because a third-party installer isn't great.
mark_l_watson 5y ago
I usually prefer Emacs, but I still sometimes use VSCode for Common Lisp, Racket, and Haskell (and of course for Python). Try, for example, the Magic Racket VSCode plugin.
- teh_g 5y ago
  Will give it a try, thanks!
zerr 5y ago
And it can't produce native executables - last time I checked it just bundles Racket interpreter itself with the source code.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- rscho 5y ago
  Racket (CS) produces machine code. Yes, it packs the runtime along but that's certainly not your 'vanilla' interpreter. For example, it compiles a parallel GC profiled to your app along too. That's pretty hardcore, IMO! In fact, Racket is very similar in spirit to the GraalVM.
Eugeleo 5y ago
Hey, since you specifically asked for it: did you try Magic Racket? [1] It’s a VS Code extension for Racket based on the Racket language server. We don’t have feature-parity with DrRacket yet, but many people are contributing to the language server, adding new features continually. (Disclaimer: I am the maintainer of Magic Racket) [1]: https://github.com/Eugleo/magic-racket https://github.com/Eugleo/magic-racket

by teh_g 5y ago

I'd be a loyal user of Racket, if it was reasonably easy to use with an IDE similar to VS Code. Emacs is too involved for a casual hobbyist like me, while Dr Racket feels a bit toyish.

swiley 5y ago

Have you tried vanilla Emacs? It doesn't require any configuration to just start using it.

toolslive 5y ago
or something preconfigured like spacemacs or prelude. I think the biggest problem of emacs is that it's an entire universe by itself: everything is there in a zillion flavours (which always ALMOST work out of the box) and I don't know which one to pick.
- swiley 5y ago
  I was explicitly thinking about spacemacs when I wrote that. I guess it might be attractive to a VS code user but it's a lot to manage.
  - Zababa 5y ago
    As a VSCode user, no spacemacs isn't really attractive. What's good about VSCode is that it works really well for all skill level and require almost no learning to start with. Spacemacs (and vanilla emacs) don't really fit that description. To be fair, most IDEs also don't fit that description.
neonnoodle 5y ago
The only thing you have to configure is your entire brain. Seriously, for anyone under 40, pressing Ctrl-Z should undo, not hide the window. I say this as a fanatical emacs user. There is nothing straightforward about vanilla emacs for someone whose software expectations have been shaped by the conventions of the last three decades!
- ryukafalz 5y ago
  I can't speak to its completeness as I haven't used it personally, but Emacs does ship with cua-mode which enables a lot of those keybindings. It's just not enabled by default, as most existing users wouldn't use it.
- medo-bear 5y ago
  i hated emacs at first for this reason. ctrl-v should be paste, ctrl-c should be copy, right !? now though i have emacs bindings system wide what brought me to emacs first was intrigue - why do people keep saying that this little shitty-looking weird editor is the most powerful program on my computer :) they weren't wrong
- one_comment 5y ago
  Am under 40. Regularity get annoyed by new windows opening when I just wanted to go down one line (and yes, I have found the gnome emacs input mode setting).

TheOtherHobbes 5y ago

Plain old Common Lisp has similar issues on the Mac. (And possibly Windows too - I haven't looked.) There's supposed a one click dev system installer, but it hasn't been updated for a while. There's a many click recommended collection of tools, but it looks like half a day of work to get it all installed and then you're supposed to use Emacs. You can add a REPL to something like Sublime Text. Or install Atom and go through another convoluted process which launches a Lisp server and etc etc etc. I gave up and got back to work at that point. It might work smoothly if I worked through it all. Then again... it might not. Which is a shame, because I like the look of Lisp very much and I really would like to play with it.

susam 5y ago
I think https://portacle.github.io/ https://portacle.github.io/ is quite close to a one click installer. Also, I have shared https://github.com/susam/emacs4cl https://github.com/susam/emacs4cl which provides a quick starter file to set up Emacs for Common Lisp development pretty quickly. Additionally, it explains every line of the quick starter file, in case one is willing to learn how it is setup and customise it for their needs.
tester89 5y ago
For Mac at least it shouldn't be that hard if you already have a development environment setup. brew install sbcl. If you want to use Sublime Text, then you can go and install this plugin called Slyblime, and the only change you need to make after that is to edit the preferences to select SBCL as the lisp command in the plugin settings.
mark_l_watson 5y ago
Try just installing SBCL using Homebrew and then setup either VSCode or Emacs (or Vi, my last manager lived in Vi when doing Common Lisp and Clojure development).
- eatonphil 5y ago
  Yep installing any major (and even some of the minor) Common Lisp implementation(s) is very straightforward. Emacs is my regular editor so I do use it when coding lisp but I don't use any extensions other than syntax highlighting (so no REPL or SLIME). I sort of get the desire to use the "one click installers" like portacle but in reality they don't add very much and now you're dependent on a third-party system with less support than the language itself. It does not make sense to say Common Lisp on Mac is broken because a third-party installer isn't great.

mark_l_watson 5y ago

I usually prefer Emacs, but I still sometimes use VSCode for Common Lisp, Racket, and Haskell (and of course for Python). Try, for example, the Magic Racket VSCode plugin.

teh_g 5y ago
Will give it a try, thanks!

zerr 5y ago

And it can't produce native executables - last time I checked it just bundles Racket interpreter itself with the source code.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
rscho 5y ago
Racket (CS) produces machine code. Yes, it packs the runtime along but that's certainly not your 'vanilla' interpreter. For example, it compiles a parallel GC profiled to your app along too. That's pretty hardcore, IMO! In fact, Racket is very similar in spirit to the GraalVM.

Eugeleo 5y ago

Hey, since you specifically asked for it: did you try Magic Racket? [1] It’s a VS Code extension for Racket based on the Racket language server. We don’t have feature-parity with DrRacket yet, but many people are contributing to the language server, adding new features continually. (Disclaimer: I am the maintainer of Magic Racket) [1]: https://github.com/Eugleo/magic-racket https://github.com/Eugleo/magic-racket