As we’ve noted previously, while the core of computer science is the design of algorithms and data structures, one needs to express those algorithms in a form understandable to the computer (and, one hopes, to human beings). We call this endeavor programming. We refer to the algorithms so expressed as both programs and code.
While it is possible to create programs in almost any text editor, more programmers develop their program in what is normally called a program-development environment or integrated development environment (IDE). These environments not only permit you to write programs, but also provide mechanisms for testing small parts of the programs, formatting the code for easy readability, obtaining documentation, and more. In general, development environments support the other activities associated with program development.
In FunDHum, you will use the DrRacket program-development environment. DrRacket was designed to support the teaching of programming, which means that it has many features that make it particularly amenable to novice programmers.
If you are working on a Linux workstation, it is likely that DrRacket is already installed. Ideally, your account will be configured so that DrRacket appears in the task bar as a blue and red symbol with a white lambda. If you don’t see such an icon, find a teacher or class mentor. Once you have the icon, you need only click on it to start DrRacket.
If you are working on a computer that runs macOS or Microsoft Windows, you will probably need to download your copy of DrRacket from https://racket-lang.org/download/. Follow the standard approach to downloading and installing software. Once again, if you encounter difficulty, ask your teacher or class mentor.
When you start DrRacket, you will find that DrRacket is similar to most applications. For example, it has a File menu that lets you open and save files and an Edit menu that permits you to cut, copy, and past text. Like many applications, DrRacket usually starts with a window for a new, untitled, document. Here’s what DrRacket’s primary window looks like.
A screenshot of the DrRacket program immediately after opening, showing no commands executed and a “#lang racket” directive in the definitions pane.
You may note that this window has two parts, which we’ll call “panes”. The top pane is called the Definitions Pane or Definitions Window and the bottom pane is called the Interactions Pane or Interactions Window. As the names suggest, the top pane is used for writing “definitions” of procedures and values and the bottom pane lets you interact with Racket.
After a few brief detours, we will explore the interactions pane.
DrRacket supports a variety of programming language. We will configure DrRacket so that it’s easy for us to tell it which language to use. In the Language menu, select Choose Language …. In the dialog box that appears, click on the radio button next to The Racket Language. Then click OK. Finally, click Run.
The other important configuration step is to configure your copy of DrRacket to use the FunDHum libraries. From the File menu, select Install Package …. In the window that appears, enter https://github.com/grinnell-cs/loudhum.git. Click Install. Eventually, a Close button should appear. Click that button. It will be your only notification that the installation succeeded.
After setting the language and installing the FunDHum library, you should be nearly ready to go.
Racket has a fairly simple syntax, but one that is different than most other programming languages. Parentheses play an important role in DrRacket. To tell DrRacket to apply a procedure to some arguments, you write an open (left) parenthesis, the name of the procedure, the arguments separated by spaces, and a close (right) parenthesis. For example, here’s how you would add 1, 2, and 3.
> (+ 1 2 3)
6
The angle bracket (greater-than sign) is the DrRacket “prompt”, the way it tells you that it wants you to enter an expression. You type your expression on the line and then ask DrRacket to evaluate it.
As we noted, the Interactions pane is where you most frequently interact with DrRacket, entering Scheme expressions and seeing their values. The DrRacket prompt tells you that DrRacket is ready for the next expression. Once you’ve entered that expression, you type the Enter or Return key. (If the cursor is in the middle of the expression, DrRacket interprets that as “move to a new line”; to get it to evaluate the expression, you must use Ctrl-Enter.) Here are a few examples, including a few that show off a variety of Scheme numeric operations. You may be able to figure out the meaning from context.
> (+ 1 2 3)
6
> (sqrt 144)
12
> (floor 3.5)
3.0
> (ceiling 3.5)
4.0
> (expt 2 3)
8
> (expt 3 2)
9
> (string-length "All mimsy were the borogoves")
28
> (string-split "All mimsy were the borogoves" " ")
'("All" "mimsy" "were" "the" "borogoves")
This style of interaction may feel a bit like a calculator with a strange user interface and a log of what you’ve done. And, in some sense, that’s one purpose of DrRacket’s interactions pane. However, DrRacket also provides a variety of features that may not be easily available in most calculators, such as support for values other than numbers (e.g., the strings above), the ability to name values, and the capability for you to write your own operations (aka procedures).
Here’s a quick example of naming in Racket, which we do with the
define keyword.
> (define add +)
> (add 1 2 3)
6
> (define three 3)
> (sqrt three)
1.7320508075688772
> (add three three)
6
When you want to edit a previous expression, you can use Ctrl-↑ or Esc-P to scroll upward through a history of expressions and you can use Ctrl-↓ or Esc-N to scroll downward.
Note: Mac users should use the Command or ⌘ key rather than the Ctrl key.
The interactions pane is intended to be ephemeral. You do a series of computations (or, more precisely, ask DrRacket to do a series of computations), You examine the results. But you should not plan for them to exist indefinitely. You can save them to a file, but most people do not. You can always clear the interactions pane by clicking the Run button or hitting Ctrl-r.
While the interactions pane is ephemeral, there are often parts of your program or your configuration that you want to save. Those parts belong in the definitions pane, at the top of the screen. You will almost always begin that pane with the line
#lang racket
After that, you will typically enter a series of definitions (hence the
name) using the define keyword. In the near future, we will see how
to use define to name functions. For the time being, we will define
things to add clarity; a name may tell you what something does without
you having to understand exactly how it works.
Consider the following definitions, not all of which will make sense.
(define sample-text "All mimsy were the borogoves")
(define word-containing-e #px"[a-z]*e[a-z]*")
(define word-containing-s #px"[a-z]*s[a-z]*")
(define trial01 11.2)
(define trial02 12.5)
(define trial03 8.5)
(define trial04 10.6)
Let’s see how we can use those in the interactions pane once we’ve clicked the Run button.
> (* 1/4 (+ trial01 trial02 trial03 trial04))
10.75
> (* 1/3 (- (+ trial01 trial02 trial03 trial04)
(min trial01 trial02 trial03 trial04)))
11.5
> sample-text
"All mimsy were the borogoves"
> (string-length sample-text)
28
> (regexp-match* word-containing-e sample-text)
'("were" "the" "borogoves")
> (regexp-match* word-containing-s sample-text)
'("mimsy" "borogoves")
Even if we have no idea what #px"[a-z]*e[a-z]*" represents, we can
probably interpret word-containing-e, particularly from the context it
is used.
We noted that the definitions pane is intended for the work that you intend to be permanent, or at least less ephemeral than the work you do in the interactions pane. Hence, we will regularly save the contents of the definitions pane to a file. We can then restore those definitions at a later time.
By custom, we save Racket files with a suffix of .rkt. If you do not
provide a suffix, or choose a bad suffix such as .jpg, DrRacket is
happy to allow you to violate conventions. But you will then find it
much harder to work with the file in a future.
Once you now that your definitions are safely stored in a file, you can quit DrRacket, go off and do other work, and then restart DrRacket to reload the definitions. As you might expect, you can load old definitions by using Open… or Open Recent from the File menu.
You have now learned enough to interact with DrRacket. In the forthcoming lab, you will have the opportunity to ground those abstract instructions in concrete exercises. Before you do so, you will find it useful to take a few quick notes on some issues.
In your own words, explain what DrRacket is and why we use it in this course.
What suffix should you use for your Racket files?