[plt-scheme] arglist-on-space?

Thanks for expanding on the documentation possibilities -- probably  
not the path I want to go down right now but good to know. I guess the  
easy access to documentation in Common Lisp comes from the way that  
definitions can include doc-strings which, under the right compiler  
options, remain linked to the symbols at runtime.

Robbie's note straightened me out on modules enough for now, but I'll  
have to look into this more. Many of my programs run other programs  
(e.g. because they are programs for evolving programs), and I'll have  
to think about what this means in the PLT context. FWIW Common Lisp's  
module mechanisms never do what I want either, but I've learned how to  
avoid them :-)

  -Lee


On Aug 10, 2009, at 11:41 PM, Ryan Culpepper wrote:

> Lee Spector wrote:
>> Thanks for the speedy and helpful responses.
>> F1, which I didn't know about previously, will help a lot. It  
>> doesn't show the arglist right in the programming environment, and  
>> it only helps for built-in definitions, but within these limits it  
>> provides pretty quick access to the arglist and documentation.
>
> Depends on what you mean by "built-in definitions". It shows  
> documentation for anything for which there are Scribble docs,  
> including the core language, the standard library collections (see  
> "collections" in the Guide), and installed PLaneT packages.
>
> It's possible to build documentation for standalone projects using  
> the scribble command-line tool, but it requires more effort and the  
> resulting docs are not quite integrated with the main docs. Another  
> solution is to make PLT Scheme treat your standalone project as a  
> special kind of locally-hosted PLaneT package (search "development  
> link"). Then your project's Scribble docs will get integrated into  
> the main documentation. You'll have to run setup-plt whenever you  
> want to rebuild your docs, though.
>
> Just wanted to expand on the possibilities of the documentation  
> system.
>
>> "cmd /" (yes, I'm on a mac) provides symbol completion -- not what  
>> I had asked about, but also handy.
>> Getting to definitions from Check Syntax -> control-click -> Jump  
>> to Definition also seems to be useful, although I'm having a hard  
>> time experimenting with it at the moment because I haven't yet  
>> fully grokked PLT namespaces, so my cross-file definitions aren't  
>> working as I expect. ("#lang scheme/load" makes file loading work  
>> in the way that I expect but then Check Syntax no longer provides  
>> the arrows/menus... I know I need to read about namespaces.) In any  
>> event I'll keep this in mind as I move forward.
>
> It's probably not namespaces you should read about so much as  
> modules. "#lang <language>" makes a module out of a whole file. The  
> scheme/load language just interprets all of its contents as data to  
> be dynamically eval'd at runtime, so there's no information  
> available to tools like Check Syntax. As Robby suggests, you'll get  
> more information if you use the scheme or scheme/base language.
>
> Modules are for writing programs. Namespaces are for writing  
> programs that run other programs (like DrSchemes and web-servers).  
> Roughly.
>
> Ryan
>
>> Thanks again, and if anyone knows of a way to get more complete  
>> arglist-on-space behavior (that is, in the programming environment  
>> and for all functions) I'd love to hear about it.
>> -Lee
>> PS Mike: glad to hear you've seen the GP stuff, some of which will  
>> inevitably migrate to Scheme as I spend more time writing Scheme  
>> code...
>> On Aug 10, 2009, at 8:50 PM, Robby Findler wrote:
>>> For the arguments, DrScheme doesn't really do that (altho, as  
>>> always,
>>> patches are welcome), but th next best thing is to hit f1. That'll
>>> send you to the docs, searching for whatever is around the insertion
>>> point in the editor.
>>>
>>> For the other, you have to run check syntax first and then you can
>>> jump directly to the definition of any function (no matter where  
>>> it is
>>> defined-- check syntax re-uses the compiler to get its lexical
>>> information so you can be sure you're jumping precisely).
>>>
>>> Robby
>>>
>>> On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 6:19 PM, Lee  
>>> Spector<lspector at hampshire.edu> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Is there any way to get "arglist-on-space" behavior in DrScheme  
>>>> or any
>>>> editor working with PLT scheme? What I mean by this is that when  
>>>> you type
>>>> the name of a function and then a space the argument list for the  
>>>> function
>>>> appears in a mini-buffer (or anywhere -- I just want to see it).  
>>>> I'd be
>>>> happy to have this functionality either in an editor (e.g. the  
>>>> DrScheme
>>>> definitions pane) or listener (e.g. the DrScheme interactions  
>>>> pane) or both.
>>>>
>>>> I am a DrScheme/PLT newbie, adopting it for a course I'm teaching  
>>>> in the
>>>> fall, but I'm a long-time Common Lisper and this is one of things  
>>>> I miss
>>>> most from my favorite CL environments. Next on my list would be a  
>>>> way to get
>>>> from a function name to the definition of the function with a  
>>>> couple of key
>>>> strokes, rather than searching in files. Both of these things  
>>>> require the
>>>> runtime environment to keep information around that maybe PLT  
>>>> isn't keeping
>>>> around... but I don't know.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> -Lee
>>>>
>>>> -- 
>>>> Lee Spector, Professor of Computer Science
>>>> School of Cognitive Science, Hampshire College
>>>> 893 West Street, Amherst, MA 01002-3359
>>>> lspector at hampshire.edu, http://hampshire.edu/lspector/
>>>> Phone: 413-559-5352, Fax: 413-559-5438
>>>>
>>>> Check out Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines:
>>>> http://www.springer.com/10710 - http://gpemjournal.blogspot.com/
>>>>
>>>> _________________________________________________
>>>> For list-related administrative tasks:
>>>> http://list.cs.brown.edu/mailman/listinfo/plt-scheme
>>>>
>> -- 
>> Lee Spector, Professor of Computer Science
>> School of Cognitive Science, Hampshire College
>> 893 West Street, Amherst, MA 01002-3359
>> lspector at hampshire.edu, http://hampshire.edu/lspector/
>> Phone: 413-559-5352, Fax: 413-559-5438
>> Check out Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines:
>> http://www.springer.com/10710 - http://gpemjournal.blogspot.com/
>> _________________________________________________
>> For list-related administrative tasks:
>> http://list.cs.brown.edu/mailman/listinfo/plt-scheme

--
Lee Spector, Professor of Computer Science
School of Cognitive Science, Hampshire College
893 West Street, Amherst, MA 01002-3359
lspector at hampshire.edu, http://hampshire.edu/lspector/
Phone: 413-559-5352, Fax: 413-559-5438

Check out Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines:
http://www.springer.com/10710 - http://gpemjournal.blogspot.com/