[Racket announcement] Racket v5.3.2

From: Eli Barzilay (eli at barzilay.org)
Date: Thu Jan 31 23:20:09 EST 2013

Racket version 5.3.2 is now available from

  http://racket-lang.org/

Core Libraries:

* The new `math' library provides functions and data structures for
  working with numbers and collections of numbers.  Functions
  include non-elementary (such as gamma, zeta, Lambert's W),
  number-theoretic (factorization, modular arithmetic), linear
  algebra (arithmetic, decompositions), and statistical (expected
  values, order statistics, binning).  Data structures include
  arbitrary-precision bigfloats, probability distributions, and
  multidimensional arrays.

* The new `file/untar', `file/untgz', and `file/unzip' libraries
  support unpacking widely used archive formats.

* The new `lazy-require' form allows programs to delay the loading
  and instantiation of helper modules until they are needed.

* The new `data/bit-vector' library provides an implementation of
  bit vectors (a mutable sequence of booleans) supporting popcount.

* The `racket/generic' library allows the specification of default
  method implementations for core datatypes.

* The `openssl' library can verify hostnames and use the operating
  system's certificate store to verify certificates.

Package System:

* A new package system is in beta release.  This system will become
  Planet's successor.  It differs significantly from the latter.
  For details, please read the documentation at
  http://docs.racket-lang.org/planet2/ and list your packages on the
  new index at https://pkg.racket-lang.org/.

* The `raco test' command supports testing by collection and
  package, in addition to by directory and file, with the "-c" and
  "-p" options.

Teaching Libraries:

* batch-io: the read and write functions work on Unix-style standard
  input and output.

DrRacket:

* DrRacket's GUI is more responsive.

* The automatic parenthesis insertion mode is improved.

Scribble:

* Scribble renders Markdown format files via the "--markdown"
  command-line flag.  Example use case: Generate documentation
  hosted on GitHub or BitBucket.

* Documentation cross-reference information is stored in an SQLite3
  database, which means that SQLite3 is required for building Racket
  documentation on Unix/Linux machines (but SQLite3 is included in
  Racket distributions for Windows and Mac OS X).

  Using a database for cross-reference information significantly
  reduces the initial footprint of DrRacket, since DrRacket no
  longer needs to load all cross-reference information.

Typed Racket:

* Typed Racket programs can require `plot/typed' to draw plots.
  List- and vector-accepting functions accept general sequences.

* Typed Racket supports Racket's delimited continuation and
  continuation mark operators.

Redex:

* Added more support for `define-judgment-form', including random
  generation for well-formed judgments and visualization of
  judgments.

Deprecation:

The following have been removed in this release:

* the `planet' command-line tool; use `raco planet' instead.

The following has been deprecated and will be removed in the August
2013 release:

* the `mzlib/class100' library; use `racket/class' instead.

Feedback Welcome,
-- 
          ((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (x x)))          Eli Barzilay:
                    http://barzilay.org/                   Maze is Life!

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