[racket] Racket style guide (was Re: Argument order conventions (was: Variable naming conventions))

When struct defs are short and sweet, I put them at the top. 

If I want to stick strictly to the suggestion, I act like this: 

#lang racket

;; here are the data i work with 
(define world/c
  (flat-named-contract 'world (lambda (x) (world? x))))

(define prime/c 
  (and/c number? (lambda (x) #true)))

;; here are the services I provide 
(provide/contract
 [world/c contract?]
 [change-world (-> world/c prime/c world/c)])

;; here is how the services are implemented 
(struct world (dot))

(define (change-world w p)
  (world p))

;; --- 

Note that this guideline reflects a personal preference. There are probably Racketeers who consider it stupid or something like that. I find it important to list first what data I deal with and what services I provide (formulated in terms of data/contracts). The implementation is something I shouldn't have to read. 

Personally, I'd love to see even more of a separation between the header (data + provide) and the implementation. Perhaps I read too much Modula 2 code, perhaps I liked units too much. 

-- Matthias





On Sep 22, 2011, at 12:00 PM, Doug Williams wrote:

> Matthias,
> 
> In the style guide it suggests requires, auxiliary concepts related to the contracts,  provide/contract, and then the body of the module. One problem I have is that I often use structs to define new data types and use the resulting structure type predicate - <type name>? - in many contracts. This forces the provide/contract to be at (or near) the bottom of the module. So, I had just started putting it there all the time. [The provide/contract seems to require the 'auxiliary concepts' to already be defined.]
> 
> Would it be better for me to define a <type name>/c flat-named contract for the struct and move it back to the top? I assume I can use a forward reference to a module variable - i.e., <type name>? - in the named-flat-contract.
> 
> Doug
> 
> On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 6:47 PM, Matthias Felleisen <matthias at ccs.neu.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
> For the past few months, I have been writing a style guide for new Racket PLTers. The current draft is available at
> 
>    http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/Style/style/
> 
> I had hoped to complete it a bit more and polish it a bit more, but this discussion suggests that people might be interested in reading it and commenting on it.
> 
> -- Matthias
> 
> 
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