4 ms·

While the language is interesting, sadly, nobody is using it in the wild. Maybe due to cumbersome deployment options? The ability to produce native standalone e

by zerr 1mo ago

While the language is interesting, sadly, nobody is using it in the wild. Maybe due to cumbersome deployment options? The ability to produce native standalone executables would boost its usage I believe.

TheGoddessInari 1mo ago
https://docs.racket-lang.org/guide/exe.html https://docs.racket-lang.org/guide/exe.html
throwaway27448 1mo ago
Racket has been able to produce standalone executables for a while now.
- gus_massa 1mo ago
  I agree. In 2020 we had to manipulate some Moodle files. I wrote the code in Racket and I sent the ".exe" file to my coworkers, that never knew they were using Racket.
- Vedor 1mo ago
  For years, really.
dented42 1mo ago
Given that a lot of people use it in the wild I’m not sure where you’re getting that from.
mark_l_watson 1mo ago
I wrote my own AI coding harness in Racket, it works fine, meets my own needs. I did earlier versions in Common Lisp and Python but the Racket version is the most full featured.
velcrovan 1mo ago
Not only do I produce standalone executables in Racket, I cross-compile GUI apps written on MacOS to produce executables for Windows.
zelphirkalt 1mo ago
It is not due to deployment options. People put all sorts of stuff in docker containers every day. It is rather that few people make an effort to learn a lisp, and fewer still who choose to learn Racket. The few universities teaching good computer programming basics using Racket don't really make a dent. You simply don't have coworkers who know this stuff. Are you going to be the one person making a decision at the company, to use something no one but you knows? Not gonna happen. I have not had a single coworker, who has even started to learn these things, even after I have presented a Scheme on a Friday afternoon, and showed off some cool threading/pipeline syntax-rules macro, and showed how this compared to Python, showing how it reduces boilerplate in a way impossible to do in Python. Granted, this is in Germany, where CS education is not really all that great, and most universities teach boring Java or C++ or something. At least we had a RacketCon in Berlin some time ago, and I was fortunate enough to have a prof at university, who at least introduced Dr.Scheme. His motto was: "I am not here to teach you C, Java, or Python. I am here to teach you computer programming." (translated) He went on to introduce languages of various paradigms, from Prolog, to Dr.Scheme (predecessor of Racket), to C, and Python. Thank you Prof. von Löwis.
- so-cal-schemer 1mo ago
  Would love to get coffee or kölsch sometime.
  - zelphirkalt 1mo ago
    Could do. I have a website in my profile. : )
hyperbolablabla 1mo ago
Naughty Dog uses Racket for all their scripting...
- so-cal-schemer 1mo ago
  Naughty Dog was a great example of how productive Scheme can be in the hands of a few expert programmers. Founders attended MIT and CMU. GOAL and GOOL were used in Jak and Dexter, Crash Bandicoot, and apparently brought back in The Last of Us: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Oriented_Assembly_Lisp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Oriented_Assembly_Lisp Unsynced: The Last of Us Melee System https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox2H3kUQByo&t=2260s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox2H3kUQByo&t=2260s In this 2014 GDC session, Naughty Dog's Anthony Newman shares an overview of the design and implementation of the melee system for The Last of Us.
- so-cal-schemer 1mo ago
  Here is a project started in 2020 to reverse engineer the runtime and language which has playable games now: https://opengoal.dev/ https://opengoal.dev/ https://opengoal.dev/blog/progress-report-sept-2020 https://opengoal.dev/blog/progress-report-sept-2020 The OpenGOAL project is a project to reverse engineer the Jak and Daxter video games and the custom programming language they were developed in: GOAL. The long-term objective of the project is to make Jak and Daxter run natively on a PC by decompiling and recompiling it with OpenGOAL, our reverse engineered version of GOAL for x86-64 PCs. We do not host any game assets or copyrighted material from the game – we only host tools for reverse engineering and porting the game. The user must provide a copy of the game to use our tools.
CoreformGreg 1mo ago
We use it - specifically we use its Scribble package to define self-documented file formats that autogenerate C++ & Python sources.
so-cal-schemer 1mo ago
Here is a project using Scheme via GUIX to manage reproducible scientific workflows in high-performance computing (HPC). There are installations using it in France, Germany, The Netherlands, Australia, The United States. https://hpc.guix.info/about/ https://hpc.guix.info/about/ https://hpc.guix.info/blog/2026/02/guix-hpc-activity-report-2025/ https://hpc.guix.info/blog/2026/02/guix-hpc-activity-report-... Guix-HPC started as a joint software development project involving three research institutes: Inria, the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), and the Utrecht Bioinformatics Center (UBC). Guix for HPC and reproducible research has since received contributions from many individuals and organizations, including CNRS, Université Paris Cité, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), Cornell University, and AMD. HPC remains a conservative domain but over the years, we have reached out to many organizations and people who share our goal of improving upon the status quo when it comes to software deployment.

by zerr 1mo ago

TheGoddessInari 1mo ago

https://docs.racket-lang.org/guide/exe.html https://docs.racket-lang.org/guide/exe.html

throwaway27448 1mo ago

Racket has been able to produce standalone executables for a while now.

gus_massa 1mo ago
I agree. In 2020 we had to manipulate some Moodle files. I wrote the code in Racket and I sent the ".exe" file to my coworkers, that never knew they were using Racket.
Vedor 1mo ago
For years, really.

dented42 1mo ago

Given that a lot of people use it in the wild I’m not sure where you’re getting that from.

mark_l_watson 1mo ago

I wrote my own AI coding harness in Racket, it works fine, meets my own needs. I did earlier versions in Common Lisp and Python but the Racket version is the most full featured.

velcrovan 1mo ago

Not only do I produce standalone executables in Racket, I cross-compile GUI apps written on MacOS to produce executables for Windows.

zelphirkalt 1mo ago

It is not due to deployment options. People put all sorts of stuff in docker containers every day. It is rather that few people make an effort to learn a lisp, and fewer still who choose to learn Racket. The few universities teaching good computer programming basics using Racket don't really make a dent. You simply don't have coworkers who know this stuff. Are you going to be the one person making a decision at the company, to use something no one but you knows? Not gonna happen. I have not had a single coworker, who has even started to learn these things, even after I have presented a Scheme on a Friday afternoon, and showed off some cool threading/pipeline syntax-rules macro, and showed how this compared to Python, showing how it reduces boilerplate in a way impossible to do in Python. Granted, this is in Germany, where CS education is not really all that great, and most universities teach boring Java or C++ or something. At least we had a RacketCon in Berlin some time ago, and I was fortunate enough to have a prof at university, who at least introduced Dr.Scheme. His motto was: "I am not here to teach you C, Java, or Python. I am here to teach you computer programming." (translated) He went on to introduce languages of various paradigms, from Prolog, to Dr.Scheme (predecessor of Racket), to C, and Python. Thank you Prof. von Löwis.

so-cal-schemer 1mo ago
Would love to get coffee or kölsch sometime.
- zelphirkalt 1mo ago
  Could do. I have a website in my profile. : )

hyperbolablabla 1mo ago

Naughty Dog uses Racket for all their scripting...

so-cal-schemer 1mo ago
Naughty Dog was a great example of how productive Scheme can be in the hands of a few expert programmers. Founders attended MIT and CMU. GOAL and GOOL were used in Jak and Dexter, Crash Bandicoot, and apparently brought back in The Last of Us: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Oriented_Assembly_Lisp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Oriented_Assembly_Lisp Unsynced: The Last of Us Melee System https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox2H3kUQByo&t=2260s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox2H3kUQByo&t=2260s In this 2014 GDC session, Naughty Dog's Anthony Newman shares an overview of the design and implementation of the melee system for The Last of Us.
so-cal-schemer 1mo ago
Here is a project started in 2020 to reverse engineer the runtime and language which has playable games now: https://opengoal.dev/ https://opengoal.dev/ https://opengoal.dev/blog/progress-report-sept-2020 https://opengoal.dev/blog/progress-report-sept-2020 The OpenGOAL project is a project to reverse engineer the Jak and Daxter video games and the custom programming language they were developed in: GOAL. The long-term objective of the project is to make Jak and Daxter run natively on a PC by decompiling and recompiling it with OpenGOAL, our reverse engineered version of GOAL for x86-64 PCs. We do not host any game assets or copyrighted material from the game – we only host tools for reverse engineering and porting the game. The user must provide a copy of the game to use our tools.

CoreformGreg 1mo ago

We use it - specifically we use its Scribble package to define self-documented file formats that autogenerate C++ & Python sources.

so-cal-schemer 1mo ago

Here is a project using Scheme via GUIX to manage reproducible scientific workflows in high-performance computing (HPC). There are installations using it in France, Germany, The Netherlands, Australia, The United States. https://hpc.guix.info/about/ https://hpc.guix.info/about/ https://hpc.guix.info/blog/2026/02/guix-hpc-activity-report-2025/ https://hpc.guix.info/blog/2026/02/guix-hpc-activity-report-... Guix-HPC started as a joint software development project involving three research institutes: Inria, the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), and the Utrecht Bioinformatics Center (UBC). Guix for HPC and reproducible research has since received contributions from many individuals and organizations, including CNRS, Université Paris Cité, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), Cornell University, and AMD. HPC remains a conservative domain but over the years, we have reached out to many organizations and people who share our goal of improving upon the status quo when it comes to software deployment.