> I am sure that this will sound stupid, but I am a complete beginner to
> programming and have just downloaded Racket from the
> racket-lang.org/download/ site. It is now installed on my computer but when
> I click it, the only thing that opens is a black screen with a flashing
> cursor below the sentence "Welcome to Racket v5.2.1".
>
> Where do I go from here? How do I choose the Dr Racket programming
> environment and the level of beginner as advised in the book "how to design
> programs."
For future reference: mention what kind of operating system you are
using. This is a detail that can help us give you better advice on
how to start DrRacket.
When you install DrRacket, it should come with a suite of programs.
The program that you're clicking is plain Racket, which doesn't give
you a nice editing environment. But you should also see a program
named "DrRacket": this is the editing environment you should be using
with How to Design Programs.
The interface looks something like this:
http://docs.racket-lang.org/drracket/interface-essentials.html
You'll know you have the right program running when you see that kind
of window show up, rather than the plain console window you're seeing
now.
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