[racket] eval working in REPL but not in source file

From: Neil Van Dyke (neil at neilvandyke.org)
Date: Sat Apr 26 15:19:40 EDT 2014

Stephen Chang wrote at 04/26/2014 01:27 PM:
>
> This blog post by Matthew Flatt provides some more intuition for 
> racket's eval:
>
> http://blog.racket-lang.org/2011/10/on-eval-in-dynamic-languages-generally.html
>
>

Good article.

For educational and research purposes, I think people should feel free 
to use eval.

For professional/production purposes, I think a good rule of thumb is 
that you shouldn't use eval unless you know why it's the best way for 
your task.  (Hint: It almost never is.)  And even if you know how to use 
eval properly and safely, consider that developers who come after you on 
the system might not.  (I might have a brand-new real-world horror story 
on this theme.)  When in doubt, don't use eval.

Neil V.


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