[racket] #lang

On May 14, 2011, at 8:07 PM, Shriram Krishnamurthi wrote:

> #lang annoyed me until I "got it"; now it annoys me immensely that I
> have to use a *menu* to select a (teaching) language.

Oh, I agree entirely: the choice of language belongs in the source code, not in a per-user preferences file.  I'd rather have my students' files start with
#lang bsl
or 
#lang isll
or something, as long as my students don't need to SEE that.  Could we have a menu option in DrRacket to hide or show the #lang line (perhaps in a separate pane)?  For the benefit of beginning students, I'd like to keep the language selection menu, but its effect would be to alter the (hidden) #lang line.

> #lang is just #! done right.  Maybe it should be presented that way.

That's a good analogy.


Stephen Bloch
sbloch at adelphi.edu