... 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 <dev.x...@gmail.com> 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 david....@gmail.com wrote: > Hi Yushuo, > > On Sat, Nov 6, 2021 at 5:33 AM Yushuo Xiao <dev....@gmail.com> 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 racket-users...@googlegroups.com. > 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 racket-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > 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 racket-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > 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 racket-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/racket-users/CEEAE11F-8185-461E-8DDF-C640330E8F91%40biomantica.com.
