[racket] #lang text ? #lang none ?

On Jan 20, 2012, at 8:48 AM, Eli Barzilay wrote:

> Yesterday, John Clements wrote:
>> Scribble tipped the balance for me; I now find myself using DrRacket
>> to edit text files.
>> 
>> As part of a quest for world domina^H^H^H^H^H^Hcompatibility, I'd
>> like to add either
>> 
>> #lang text
>> 
>> or 
>> 
>> #lang none
>> 
>> which could begin a text file and indicate that no highlighting
>> should be done, and that evaluation should be a no-op.
> 
> 1. If the point is only about using DrRacket for editing text files,
>   then I don't think that a #lang is the right place for that.
>   Instead, it's much better to use the file suffix (and yes, editing
>   modes for unsaved files -- if that's hard to use then it's the UI
>   that should change).
> 
> 2. For nearly plain text files, you have `scribble/text'.  That still
>   has the "@" escapes, but I could make an option to the language
>   that would use a "customized delimited" by default, so that only
>   "|@" is the delimiter, or more stuff between them.
> 
>   (To make it go in-line with `at-exp' such an extention could be
>   some prefix too (though I personally dislike the semi-convention of
>   using prefixes for setting reader options).)

I think you're missing the "manifest destiny" I'm proposing; in particular, I'm thinking about push the #lang syntax outward into the world, so that people think, "hey; it makes sense that every text-like file should begin with a line stating what language it's written in."

You may argue that it'll never catch on, and you might be right. I don't mind tilting at windmills when it doesn't cost me too much, though.

John

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