19:26 <jfab> Is this a good place to ask questions or is the slack channel more active?

19:28 <jcowan> Don't ask to ask, just ask.

19:28 <jcowan> If your question is inappropriate, we'll tell you (or ignore you)

19:30 <jfab> I'm using readline to grab user input but it doesn't seem to load ~/.inputrc

19:30 <jfab> I'm following https://docs.racket-lang.org/readline/index.html

19:31 <jfab> Which says the readline library is backed by editline, so I tried copying ~/.inputrc to ~/.editrc, but that had no effec either.

19:33 <jfab> I have (require readline/readline) at the top of the file and I use (readline "> ") to get input.

19:34 <jfab> In my .inputrc and .editrc I have `set editing-mode vi` but vi commands don't work at the input prompt.

19:35 <jfab> So my question is if there is something in particular I need to do to get racket's readline library to load the settings in .inputrc or .editrc, or if they are supposed to work automatically?

19:51 <jcowan> Looks like nobody here knows (I certainly don't) or the people who know are not available. Try the slack channel.

19:53 <jfab> OK, thanks. I'll also try the mailing list.

20:00 <jfab> I resolved this issue by installing the "readline-gpl" package as per https://docs.racket-lang.org/readline/index.html to make the readline collection use GNU readline rather than editline.

20:01 <jfab> I thought I'd tried to do this already and it didn't work, but I just didn't understand how raco pkg worked.

21:36 <meepdeew> hello, quick question about BSL, the language in HTDP. I am a little confused by non-data forms that evaluate by returning themselves. For example (make-posn 3 4) ; => (make-posn 3 4). Is this deferred evaluation (lazy loading?)? An extreme example of homoiconicity? Something else? The function make-posn is, I think, built in, but this behavior also appears when making instances of user-defined structs. I'm fairly new to lisps, but CL's obje

21:36 <meepdeew> ct system's #'make-instance does, I think, not behave like this.

21:39 <lexi-lambda> meepdeew: in BSL, values print as expressions that produce the same value when evaluated. if you do something like (make-posn (+ 1 2) (+ 3 4)), you will see that evaluation is happening, posns just print like their constructor.

21:46 <meepdeew> Okee doke, thanks for clarifying, lexi-lambda.

22:33 <jcowan> It's a reduce/normalize interpreter as opposed to an apply/eval interpreter, then? Or is it just using a funky printer?

22:33 <jcowan> (easy test: does '5 print '5, or 5?)

22:47 <meepdeew> '5 ; => '5; So it's not an apply/eval interpreter (the only kind of lisp interpreter I was aware of)? And that's BSL-specific, but not scheme-specific?

22:50 <jcowan> Right

22:51 <jcowan> It reduces expressions to normal form, it seems. Since (make-posn 3 4) is already in normal form, there's nothing to do.

22:52 <jcowan> Definitely not Scheme-specific

22:52 <jcowan> AFAIK the only normalize/reduce Lispy system is Brian Smith's 2-Lisp (not to be confused with Lisp 2, an ancient Lisp with Algol-style syntax, or Lisp-2, the concept of a Lisp with separate operator and operand evaluation processes)

23:02 <meepdeew> Gotcha. Thanks, jcowan.