[plt-scheme] Error reporting and batch compilation

"Richard C. Cobbe" <cobbe at ccs.neu.edu> writes:

>   For list-related administrative tasks:
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>
> Lo, on Wednesday, August 11, Matthias Felleisen did write:
>
>> The C people didn't get this any "rigther" than the Scheme people.
>> They were forced to report as many type and syntax errors in one
>> pass as possible because they were and are batch people, who just
>> don't understand how incremental work helps people.
>
> Right, but as execution time increases, the distinction between batch
> and interactive development decreases.  It's really not very hard to
> write a Scheme program whose execution time (by which I mean time
> between hitting the `execute' button and getting a prompt back) is
> comparable to running make.
>
> If someone can suggest a testing strategy that doesn't require hitting
> execute after every change (or even most of them), then I'd love to hear
> about it.

In other Scheme and Lisp systems, hitting an error doesn't return you
to top level.  Instead, it creates a nested REPL with a continuation
that re-attempts whatever caused the error.  Within this nested REPL,
you can edit and debug the code and proceed without losing your state.