<div class="gmail_extra">So from what I'm gathering the only way to share data with the reader and expander layer is to add the reader as a submodue in the main.rkt file. So I've done that and it works but now I have a new problem, provide doesn't seem to be providing anything. Here is an example main.rkt file that provides meta-count. #lang racket (provide (all-from-out racket) meta-count) (define meta-count 0) (module* reader syntax/module-reader racket #:read meta-read #:read-syntax meta-read-syntax (require (submod "." "..") syntax/readerr) (define (meta-read in) (parameterize ([current-readtable (make-meta-readtable)]) (read in))) (define (meta-read-syntax src in) (parameterize ([current-readtable (make-meta-readtable)]) (read-syntax src in))) (define (make-meta-readtable) (make-readtable (current-readtable) #\^ 'terminating-macro read-meta)) (define read-meta (case-lambda [(ch in) (rread (object-name in) in)] [(ch in src line col pos) (rread src in)])) (define (rread src in) (define-values (line col pos) (port-next-location in)) (let ([meta (regexp-match #rx"[^ (['`#]+" in)]) (if meta (begin (set! meta-count (add1 meta-count)) (make-special-comment meta)) (raise-read-error "expected a metadata name" src line col pos 1))))) So this simply counts the amount of metadata tags and provides the count. However if I try this: #lang my-lang ^meta (+ ^meta1 1 2) (display meta-count) I should see 2 displayed but I get "3 meta-count: unbound identifier in module" I thought if you export data through provide in main.rkt you will be able to use it after specifying the #lang, why is this happenning? >Maybe we should have a new `something' so that `#lang something' is >like `#lang reader', except that it looks for a `reader' submodule. I think that would be awesome, that way you could specify your own mini-language or do preprocessing at the reader level by simply creating a reader submodule in the module. >Special comments aren't stored by `read' or `read-syntax'; they're just >discarded. Creating a special comment has no side effect. I don't understand why the the function is called (make-special-comment) then, why isn't it just called (discard) or (skip) or something. and why does it require a name as an argument if it isn't even going to do anything with it. I guess I'm still a little confused on how special comments are used. <div class="gmail_quote">>One way to attach metadata to a syntax object is to use a syntax >property. For example, the reader preserves the information that `[1 >2]' is written qith suqare brackets by attaching a 'paren-shape >property to the result of `read-syntax'. I think this could be useful, but adding a syntax property is something you can only do at the reader level right? Can you go back and alter a syntax property after it has been compiled? Is syntax information lost at a certain point? </div></div>