5 ms·

XREPL: eXtended REPL

28 points by networked 12y ago

JasonFruit 12y ago
XREPL sounds nice. It makes me wish that I liked Racket as well as I feel like I should — it's a nice language, it has a lot of good libraries, and I appreciate the reasons it's not RnRS Scheme, but I still don't feel comfortable not being able to make my Scheme[1] at least potentially portable to other implementations. [1] I know, I know, it's not Scheme. But it's still Scheme.
- samth 12y ago
  Do you worry about this when you write Python/Ruby/Clojure/Scala/etc?
  - JasonFruit 12y ago
    Not as much, because for at least Python — I don't use the others much — the community is mostly united around a single implementation. Scheme's more varied landscape makes me more concerned with writing portable code.
    - brudgers 12y ago
      By 'a single implementation' you mean Python 2 or Python 3, right? ;> In seriousness, what sort of portability issues do you see with Racket code? Racket has 32 and 64 bit flavors for *nix, OSX, and Windows. It offers backward/sideways/forward compatibility with R5RS and R6RS. Locked away in the cellar like a crazy aunt, it even includes mutable lists. http://docs.racket-lang.org/compatibility/mlists.html http://docs.racket-lang.org/compatibility/mlists.html
    - sigstoat 12y ago
      looks to me like the racket community is united around a single implementation. the scripting language community is all split up between perl and python and a bunch of shells. ugh. much more problematic.
    - samth 12y ago
      What sigstoat said. Put differently, we want you to think of Racket the same way you think of Python.
      - jarcane 12y ago
        I know I certainly do. The very things that make me like Racket over other Lisps are also the things that make me like Python over other imperative languages, ie. clear syntax, quick-to-prototype, big standard library, high quality documentation, etc. etc.
RickHull 12y ago
I'm curious how this compares to Ruby's uber REPL, pry. https://github.com/pry/pry https://github.com/pry/pry I only started with racket yesterday, enjoying it so far...
- michaelmior 12y ago
  I personally prefer irb with a couple extensions over pry. However, pry is definitely useful when debugging.
AlexeyBrin 12y ago
Has anyone tried to port Racket to iOS and Android ?
- brudgers 12y ago
  My understanding is that Apple prohibits programming languages in the App store. By 'port to Android' do you mean running the Racket VM on the Dalvik VM? It is hard for me to see how that would be more productive than Clojure.
  - cthulha 12y ago
    That's not quite it... There are programming languages in the App Store. A couple I've tried are: - LuaBox Pro https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/iluabox-pro/id437557082?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/iluabox-pro/id437557082?mt=8 - Lisping https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/lisping/id512138518?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/lisping/id512138518?mt=8 - Ruby for iOS https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/ruby-for-ios/id535080197?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/ruby-for-ios/id535080197?mt=... The sticking point is that they can't download substantial new functionality. So you can't make it easy to import scripts from elsewhere to be run as is they were native apps. This is probably to avoid 'trojan horse' apps which appear to be a REPL but are really meant to be bit torrent clients or bitcoin wallets or ... anything else Apple wouldn't let in the front door.
  - AlexeyBrin 12y ago
    > My understanding is that Apple prohibits programming languages in the App store. This is not entirely true, as long as your language is compiled there is no problem (see RubyMotion which is a compiler for Ruby for iOS). Even interpreted languages like Lua and JavaScript are allowed. I think JIT languages are not allowed.
- jarcane 12y ago
  It is possible to cross-compile Racket for Android. There's notes on how to do this in the src tree here: https://github.com/plt/racket/tree/master/racket/src https://github.com/plt/racket/tree/master/racket/src There's also Whalesong, which compiles Racket to JS, which could potentially be useful for either platform: http://www.hashcollision.org/whalesong/index.html http://www.hashcollision.org/whalesong/index.html
jgalt212 12y ago
I wish Clojure had an extended REPL included with the main source. As new Clojure user, I have struggled getting going with a good REPL. Not looking for a solution here, just citing an example, but I have struggled with Leiningen puking without a defined project. Despite the closed status, it's still an open issue for me and others. https://github.com/technomancy/leiningen/issues/1625 https://github.com/technomancy/leiningen/issues/1625 What is the best easy to install extended REPL for Clojure experimentation?

28 points by networked 12y ago

XREPL sounds nice. It makes me wish that I liked Racket as well as I feel like I should — it's a nice language, it has a lot of good libraries, and I appreciate the reasons it's not RnRS Scheme, but I still don't feel comfortable not being able to make my Scheme[1] at least potentially portable to other implementations. [1] I know, I know, it's not Scheme. But it's still Scheme.

samth 12y ago
Do you worry about this when you write Python/Ruby/Clojure/Scala/etc?
- JasonFruit 12y ago
  Not as much, because for at least Python — I don't use the others much — the community is mostly united around a single implementation. Scheme's more varied landscape makes me more concerned with writing portable code.
  - brudgers 12y ago
    By 'a single implementation' you mean Python 2 or Python 3, right? ;> In seriousness, what sort of portability issues do you see with Racket code? Racket has 32 and 64 bit flavors for *nix, OSX, and Windows. It offers backward/sideways/forward compatibility with R5RS and R6RS. Locked away in the cellar like a crazy aunt, it even includes mutable lists. http://docs.racket-lang.org/compatibility/mlists.html http://docs.racket-lang.org/compatibility/mlists.html
  - sigstoat 12y ago
    looks to me like the racket community is united around a single implementation. the scripting language community is all split up between perl and python and a bunch of shells. ugh. much more problematic.
  - samth 12y ago
    What sigstoat said. Put differently, we want you to think of Racket the same way you think of Python.
    - jarcane 12y ago
      I know I certainly do. The very things that make me like Racket over other Lisps are also the things that make me like Python over other imperative languages, ie. clear syntax, quick-to-prototype, big standard library, high quality documentation, etc. etc.

RickHull 12y ago

I'm curious how this compares to Ruby's uber REPL, pry. https://github.com/pry/pry https://github.com/pry/pry I only started with racket yesterday, enjoying it so far...

michaelmior 12y ago
I personally prefer irb with a couple extensions over pry. However, pry is definitely useful when debugging.

AlexeyBrin 12y ago

Has anyone tried to port Racket to iOS and Android ?

brudgers 12y ago
My understanding is that Apple prohibits programming languages in the App store. By 'port to Android' do you mean running the Racket VM on the Dalvik VM? It is hard for me to see how that would be more productive than Clojure.
- cthulha 12y ago
  That's not quite it... There are programming languages in the App Store. A couple I've tried are: - LuaBox Pro https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/iluabox-pro/id437557082?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/iluabox-pro/id437557082?mt=8 - Lisping https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/lisping/id512138518?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/lisping/id512138518?mt=8 - Ruby for iOS https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/ruby-for-ios/id535080197?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/ruby-for-ios/id535080197?mt=... The sticking point is that they can't download substantial new functionality. So you can't make it easy to import scripts from elsewhere to be run as is they were native apps. This is probably to avoid 'trojan horse' apps which appear to be a REPL but are really meant to be bit torrent clients or bitcoin wallets or ... anything else Apple wouldn't let in the front door.
- AlexeyBrin 12y ago
  > My understanding is that Apple prohibits programming languages in the App store. This is not entirely true, as long as your language is compiled there is no problem (see RubyMotion which is a compiler for Ruby for iOS). Even interpreted languages like Lua and JavaScript are allowed. I think JIT languages are not allowed.
jarcane 12y ago
It is possible to cross-compile Racket for Android. There's notes on how to do this in the src tree here: https://github.com/plt/racket/tree/master/racket/src https://github.com/plt/racket/tree/master/racket/src There's also Whalesong, which compiles Racket to JS, which could potentially be useful for either platform: http://www.hashcollision.org/whalesong/index.html http://www.hashcollision.org/whalesong/index.html

jgalt212 12y ago

I wish Clojure had an extended REPL included with the main source. As new Clojure user, I have struggled getting going with a good REPL. Not looking for a solution here, just citing an example, but I have struggled with Leiningen puking without a defined project. Despite the closed status, it's still an open issue for me and others. https://github.com/technomancy/leiningen/issues/1625 https://github.com/technomancy/leiningen/issues/1625 What is the best easy to install extended REPL for Clojure experimentation?