[plt-scheme] Contracts and (multiple-return-)values

I should probably work harder on this error message. It seems like
there should be a way to get a stacktrace that involves your functions
instead of the current middle-of-the-contract library error message,
which I think would help clarify this.

Robby

On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 9:47 AM, David Brooks
<djb.untyped at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hi PLTers,
>
> I've just had a bit of grief with the intersection between procedures
> returning multiple values, their contracts, and my careless programming.
> (I'm sure this is a question with a Noddy answer, but I've not drummed up
> anything in my googling.)
>
> I wrote a procedure returning multiple values: (values a b), where "a" is a
> struct and "b" is a list of structs of type "c". I gave this procedure a
> contract accordingly:
>
> [my-proc (-> (values a? (listof c?)))]
>
> After getting bored of all the different "let" and "let-values" blocks, I
> decided to change the procedure to return (cons a b). However, I forgot to
> change the contract (d'oh!), so when I ran my code I got an error of the
> form:
>
> context (lexical binding) expected 2 values, received 1 value: (#(struct:a
> ...) #(struct:c ...) #(struct:c ...) ...
>
> I spent a little while examining all my lexical assignments procedure
> return-types, before I realised this was a contract violation, but one that
> wasn't being flagged as such.
>
> So my questions are
> [1] does the contract system offer any protection against misuse of
> "values"? If so, how do I use it? If not, is there an interesting technical
> reason why not?
> or [2] is there any way I can get more meaningful error messages if I am
> stupid enough to repeat my mistake?
>
> Cheers,
> D
> --
> David Brooks
> http://www.untyped.com
>
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