[racket] Loop in Racket

FWIW, I like to assert that the familiar "FOR A = 1 TO 10" is actually 
not often needed in idiomatic Scheme.  More often, you're processing a 
sequence, or you're doing functional programming such that you need to 
recurse anyway to avoid mutation, or you need premature exits 
sometimes.  One possible exception that comes to mind is if you're 
writing a matrix math library, but in that case you might make your own 
procedures or syntax for iterating/folding over matrices in different ways.

Anyway, for the benefit of anyone new to syntax extensions, here is a 
syntax definition that supports the "for-loop" example (warning: it 
doesn't error-check as much as it should, because that would clutter the 
example).  You can paste this into DrRacket and use the Macro Stepper to 
watch how it expands.


#lang scheme/base

(define-syntax for-loop
  (syntax-rules ()
    ((_ (VAR START END) BODY0 BODY1 ...)
     (let ((end-val END))
       (let loop ((VAR START))
         (if (> VAR end-val)
             (void)
             (begin BODY0 BODY1 ...
                    (loop (add1 VAR)))))))))
            
(for-loop (i 1 10) (print i))
                  


Robby Findler wrote at 06/27/2010 09:34 PM:
> Please see 'for' in the docs. Here's the relevant section of the Guide:
>
> http://docs.racket-lang.org/guide/for.html
>
> Robby
>
> On Sun, Jun 27, 2010 at 8:32 PM, Brad Long <brad at longbrothers.net> wrote:
>   
>> Dear racketeers,
>>
>> What is the reason for not offering a looping construct in racket? For
>> example, something like:
>>
>> (loop (i 1 10) (print i))
>>
>> Just for the masses, it seems simpler to use.
>>
>> Any comments?
>>     

-- 
http://www.neilvandyke.org/