[plt-scheme] Re: possible discrepancy between documentation and actual usage of Typed Scheme

On Jul  3, Benjamin L.Russell wrote:
> On Wed, 2 Jul 2008 09:10:00 -0400, Eli Barzilay
> <eli at barzilay.org> wrote:
> 
> >The text itself is a
> >preference that can be changed on the language configuration panel
> >(form the language dialog hit the "Details" button), so you can just
> >change that to use `typed-scheme' instead.
> 
> Thank you for your response and explanation of the situation.
> 
> Just to confirm:  Do you mean, after hitting "Show Details" with the
> Module language selected, the text in the textbox under the title
> "Command-line arguments as a vector of strings, in read syntax" (set
> to "#()" by default)?

A new box under that.  (A pre-build is now available so you can try
it.)


> [...]
> The gist of the problem seems to be that I actually need to remember
> the full name of the language and type it somewhere, rather than
> just select it from a list.  I often forget names, and it is usually
> much easier to select a name from a list somewhere than to need to
> remember it as text and to type it out somewhere.  This new need can
> make selecting a language more difficult to use, especially if I
> need to switch often between similar-sounding language names within
> the same Module language.

Yes, it sounds like the only thing you're missing is the "wizardness"
of the language menu -- and like I said, it might happen.


> Ideally, if modules are to be used in the future, it would help if
> there were some way to specify different module languages by
> clicking on entries in a list, instead of typing out the names of
> the languages.  One suggestion would be to create a list of entries
> available by clicking on a right-pointing triangle to the left of
> the "Module" language in the "Choose Language" dialog box, similarly
> the way that different sub-languages of "How to Design Programs" and
> "Swindle" are currently chosen.  That way, I would be able to
> specify a new default language for a tab without needing explicity
> to remember the exact name of a Module language.

That sounds reasonable to me (but I'm only talking for myself).  And I
don't think that this is in contradiction to moving to #lang-based
specification.  On the contrary: languages that you use often will
have that #lang line in a visible place, so eventually you'll know
what to type and will be able to use that instead (which is good
because for many people typing `#lang scheme' is faster than openning
a dialog etc).  And in addition, you get the usual benefits like
having the language be part of the file (so you don't need to change
the language to fit the content, as was the situation in 372).

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