[plt-scheme] knowing if dynamic-require will succeed

In an earlier thread I was provided with a nice automatic way to make  
my code run with the plot module and produce graphical output when I  
run it on my mac in DrScheme, but run without the plot module and  
without graphical output when I run it on my linux cluster with  
mzscheme. The final version of this is below. It uses (equal? 'unix  
(system-type)) to produce a definition that is either void or a  
plotting routine that uses dynamic-require to refer to the plot and  
points functions.

I now plan to share this with students, some of whom I imagine may be  
running it in a graphical unix environment in which plot IS available,  
or alternatively in a non-unix environment in which plot is NOT  
available (like maybe in mzscheme under Windows or something like  
that, I guess).

So what I would ideally like to do is to replace (equal? 'unix (system- 
type)) with something that asks what I really need to know, which is  
"Will dynamically requiring plot fail?"

Is there a way to do this?

I did see in the documentation for dynamic-require that there is an  
optional fail-thunk argument, and I thought that that might provide  
the solution. The second version of plot-data below is my attempt to  
use this. But it doesn't work -- when I run it on my cluster it gives:

dynamic-require: unknown module: '#%mred-kernel; need to run in mred  
instead of mzscheme

My next thoughts were that I might find a solution either in dynamic- 
wind or by providing an exception handler, but both of these look  
fairly complicated and I would appreciate any suggestions that any of  
you have.

Thanks,

  -Lee


;; works correctly but isn't really basing the decision on the right  
criterion
(define plot-data
   (if (equal? 'unix (system-type))
       void
       (lambda (data x-label y-label)
         ((dynamic-require 'plot 'plot)
          ((dynamic-require 'plot 'points) (for/list ((i (number-list  
(length data))))
                    (vector i (list-ref data i)))
                  #:sym 'oplus)
          #:x-min 0
          #:x-max (length data)
          #:y-min 0
          #:y-max (+ 1 (apply max data))
          #:x-label x-label
          #:y-label y-label))))

;; the fail-thunk doesn't prevent an error if the plot module isn't  
available
(define plot-data
   (let* ((plot-module-available #t)) ;; assume it's available, but  
then check
     (dynamic-require 'plot 'plot (lambda () (set! plot-module- 
available #f))) ;; is it really available?
     (if plot-module-available
         (lambda (data x-label y-label)
           ((dynamic-require 'plot 'plot)
            ((dynamic-require 'plot 'points) (for/list ((i (number- 
list (length data))))
                                               (vector i (list-ref  
data i)))
                                             #:sym 'oplus)
            #:x-min 0
            #:x-max (length data)
            #:y-min 0
            #:y-max (+ 1 (apply max data))
            #:x-label x-label
            #:y-label y-label))
         void)))


--
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/