[racket-dev] comments on "comments on learning Racket"

On Sat, Apr 26, 2014 at 8:09 PM, Neil Van Dyke <neil at neilvandyke.org> wrote:
> Sam Tobin-Hochstadt wrote at 04/26/2014 08:06 PM:
>
>> On Sat, Apr 26, 2014 at 7:58 PM, Neil Van Dyke <neil at neilvandyke.org>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Sam Tobin-Hochstadt wrote at 04/26/2014 07:26 PM:
>>>
>>>> On this topic (which is about the "Choose a language" language that
>>>> DrRacket starts in when newly installed), I think we should just
>>>> delete all of this code, and start in "the Racket language".
>>>
>>>
>>> How about make Run and other very language-specific DrRacket operations
>>> require a "#lang" line?
>>>
>>> When the operation is invoked and there isn't a "#lang" line, pop up an
>>> explanatory dialog box that lets user click on button for desired
>>> language.
>>> Button inserts "#lang" at top of file before continuing with operation.
>>>
>>> (I like this better than having a default "#lang" line, because you'll
>>> get
>>> people accepting the wrong default, different people with different
>>> defaults, etc.)
>>
>> This isn't quite about the issue I'm talking about, although I think
>> this is a good idea for helping people deal with (some) problems with
>> having the wrong language.
>>
>> What I'm referring to is that when you download DrRacket for the first
>> time, and open it, it puts you in a situation where nothing works,
>> until you choose a language. I think we should get rid of that, and
>> switch to defaulting to the current "Racket language".
>
>
> Yes, but I thought what I described addresses that problem as well. (And
> avoids making a new default from the first run, which I think is
> problematic.)

I'm confused about what you're suggesting, then. Is there a
difference, under your suggestion, between opening DrRacket for the
first time, entering `1` in the definitions window, and hitting run,
and doing that same thing in an existing DrRacket where we've already
selected "the Racket language"?

Sam