* Line-width In GEdit, there's an option to show a thin vertical line at 80 chars (modifiable number). I find it of great help to avoid writing long lines, which I tend to not do otherwise or often (inconveniently) look at the column number to see where I am. Such a vertical line might be a good idea for DrRacket.
Laurent On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 10:18 AM, Laurent <laurent.ors...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > Reading the style guide for Racket, I came up with a few debatable > suggestions. > ( http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/Style/style/Textual_Matters.html ) > > Apologies if this has already been longly debated. > > * Indentation: adding new indentations constructs to DrRacket > > From the guide: "Caveat 1: Until language specifications come with fixed > indentation rules, we need to use the default settings of DrRacket’s > indentation for this rule to make sense." > > Maybe a special submodule like drracket-indentation with declarations like: > (module+ drracket-indentation > (like-lambda my-lambda my-function ....) > (like-begin my-begin ....) > ) > could be useful for user-specific indentation. > > As a submodule, Racket can read&load it only at appropriate moments. > When indenting the file, DrRacket could first load the > drracket-indentation module of the file to know how to indent it. > > One could then create a whole language with its own indentation rules. > It would also be easier to add good indentations for for/fold and others. > > * Graphical syntax > > "When we figure out how to save such files in an editor-compatible way, we > may relax this constraint." > > Maybe the graphical job should be done by DrRacket only, and the file > itself should remain textual. > For example, special forms can be turned into graphics by DrRacket when > reading the file: > You write: > (image "balloon.jpg") > and DrRacket turns this into the image (if the option is turned on > somewhere in the preferences). > Of course, the s-exp should still be editable, for example with a > contextual menu that proposes "Back to s-exp" or "Turn me into graphical > form". > > Or even surround it with a form like (drracket-show-image (image > "balloon.jpg") 48 48) for better rendering (that form obviously expands > into (image "balloon.jpg") for Racket). > > > Same for code folding, 2 options: > - either surround s-exps with a (drracket-fold ....) form to inform > DrRacket to fold the s-exp, and Racket to just do what's inside the form, > (but that "pollutes" the file for external editors, though an `unfold-file' > function should not be too difficult to do) > - or do not save folding into the file (loading a file displays it > unfolded, then it can be folded as desired). This might be problematic with > DrSync though, unless the file is not reverted if it has not changed. > > > But I agree all this would require some work, certainly. > > Laurent >
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