... and from there it's turtles all the way down. On Nov 11, 2021, at 9:46 AM, David Storrs wrote:
> Sure, that's as good a definition as any. > > On Thu, Nov 11, 2021, 6:04 AM Yushuo Xiao <[email protected]> wrote: > Thank you for your comprehensive answer! It helps a lot. I also read more > about Racket after I posted the question and now I think that the few special > forms (as stated in "fully expanded program") are the core. All languages > built in Racket will parse and convert their syntax into syntax objects > (S-expressions) and then expand to these special forms. Am I right? > > On Sunday, November 7, 2021 at 6:53:53 AM UTC+8 [email protected] wrote: > Hi Yushuo, > > On Sat, Nov 6, 2021 at 5:33 AM Yushuo Xiao <[email protected]> wrote: > I've learned some Racket, and can comfortably program in it, but I only > learned it as an ordinary language, much like Scheme. I know Racket is much > more than that, for its "language-oriented" features. Languages become a > first-class member in Racket, and to my understanding, even "#lang racket" is > just a language built on some core. What I want to know is, what's the very > core of Racket? > > It depends on where you stop measuring. You could argue that... > > ...#lang racket is the core, because it's what comes in the installation. > Things like gregor, struct-plus-plus, and csv-reading are packages that you > install from http://pkgs.racket-lang.org/ and are therefore outside the core. > > ...#lang racket/base is the core, because it's the most limited set of Racket > that comes by default. It mostly consists of only the basic list > manipulation functions, and if you want to use other things then you need to > include relevant libraries such as racket/match (giving you the 'match' > special form) or racket/format (giving you the ~a function), or racket-string > (giving you the string-length function), etc. > > ...Raw lambdas and a few special forms are the core, because everything > compiles down to those. (Approximately speaking.) > > ...Lambda calculus is the core, because it's what all LISP descendants are > based on. > > Once you start talking about other Racket languages with different syntax and > semantics, well then all bets are off. > > > Does this help? > > > I've noticed that in the Racket Reference there is a section "Fully Expanded > Programs", which seems the very core of Racket. But it still takes an > S-expression form, and apparently Racket allows language customization on the > syntax level. I wonder if the S-expression language is the core of Racket, or > the entire Racket has a different structure? > > I would really appreciate it if anyone could explain it in a simple way or > could point out some good (and short) material for me to read. The Racket > Reference is too long, and I believe the core Racket can be well explained in > a much shorter piece of text, if I just look for a brief understanding. > > Also my question may be confusing, because I don't understand Racket well at > all. Feel free to correct me or ask for clarification. Thanks in advance! > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Racket Users" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/racket-users/63b1134b-16e4-4447-828a-1e607013bd7cn%40googlegroups.com. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Racket Users" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/racket-users/6929457c-459f-4c25-94c0-ea973b121c65n%40googlegroups.com. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Racket Users" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/racket-users/CAE8gKoc-8rGaY%2BF2nDLR5BULe1tGnO5BnGAZt-DgBmhCVg_9dw%40mail.gmail.com. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Racket Users" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/racket-users/CEEAE11F-8185-461E-8DDF-C640330E8F91%40biomantica.com.
