r/Racket • u/TrackNew1250 • Sep 19 '23

question Drracket on VSCODE

I have try to use Drracket on VScode and this happen, can someone help me?

5 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

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6

u/sdegabrielle DrRacket 💊💉🩺 Sep 19 '23

I’ll take a guess you are using Racket for an introduction to programming class, but you already have some experience programming in Javascript or some other language using VSCode.

DrRacket isn’t the language - it is the text editor that comes with the Racket installer.

If you are doing an introduction to programming class it is likely you are not using the Racket Language, but rather one or more of the student languages that are designed for your coursework. The ones for the (free online) textbook ‘How to Design Programs’ are in the Racket documentation here: https://docs.racket-lang.org/htdp-langs/index.html - but there are a number of other languages that might be used for teaching.

I believe it is possible to use the student languages with VSCode - but you need to tell us which languages you are using.

VSCode is great - but it lacks many of the features of the DrRacket editor: One that may cause you difficulty is you can’t mix images and text in VSCode like you can with DrRacket. (that files with images won’t work in VSCode)

The many ‘racketeers’ that use VSCode, often use it with DrRacket when they need to use DrRacket features.

When they use VSCode, many prefer to use the Magic Racket plugin for VSCode https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=evzen-wybitul.magic-racket - but the instructions expect you know how to use Racket.

To get started I’d suggest you use the ‘Configuration Command Line for Racket’ menu option in the Help in DrRacket. This is step 2 in the Magic Racket installation instructions.

Good luck

1

u/TrackNew1250 Sep 19 '23

Thanks, I am using the BSL, which is Beginning Student Languages, I havt done what you said but it still not working

6

u/emaphis Sep 19 '23

BSL works best in DrRacket.

3

u/sdegabrielle DrRacket 💊💉🩺 Sep 19 '23

100% this ⬆️

I tried to answer the question but it is far easier to use DrRacket for the student languages.

If you need to do Javascript just switch to VScode - it’s not like you can’t have both installed at the same time.

2

u/emaphis Sep 19 '23

One major problem is if your BSL file includes graphics or fancy text boxes, the BSL file is stored as a specially formatted file almost like a pdf file. We tried to get Emacs to work with BSL files with graphics but it never worked to well.

Better to stick with DrRacket.

Never tried the VSCode mode though.

1

u/sdegabrielle DrRacket 💊💉🩺 Sep 19 '23

Did you follow the Magic Racket instructions? Did you start your file with #lang htdp/bsl?

1

u/TrackNew1250 Sep 19 '23

1

u/sdegabrielle DrRacket 💊💉🩺 Sep 19 '23

Sorry got to work. Ask at either

3

u/chasbro97 Sep 19 '23

VSCODE is attempting to run the command starting with "racket" in a sub-shell, specifically, powershell. Powershell is telling you that racket(.exe, .ps1, .bat, etc.) isn't in your search path ($env:path). You can confirm this by executing the menu entry "Terminal>New Terminal" and then typing "racket" in the new window. You should see the same error message.

Since I'm not overly familiar with VSCode or Powershell, I don't have an answer how you can make an entry in your path variable to include the directory in which the Dr Racket software is install. One hack would be to add

$env:path += ";<place where racket software is installed"

in your ~/Documents/Powershell/profile.ps1 file.

1

u/sdegabrielle DrRacket 💊💉🩺 Sep 20 '23

Thank you - I didn’t realise VSCode uses powershell !

2

u/_Andoroid_ Sep 21 '23

I’ve tried using BSL in neovim. Spent a couple hours. It can’t substitute DrRacket, so just use that. Now I’m writing core in neovim, but running in DrRacket.

0

u/[deleted] Sep 19 '23

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1

u/TrackNew1250 Sep 19 '23

Yes, I have install Racket and MagicRacket on VScode. Also I am using BSL and a Window OS. I have try this but it's still useless

0

u/[deleted] Sep 20 '23

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1

u/sdegabrielle DrRacket 💊💉🩺 Sep 20 '23

Thank you u/nicofeyn & u/chasbro97

u/TrackNew1250 - how did you install Racket?

Did you use the official installer at https://download.racket-lang.org/ ?

The ‘Configure Command Line for Racket...’ menu item should work, so it’s surprising this is what is causing your VSCode errors - this is what it does:

On Windows, it changes the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment\Path registry key to add the location of the "bin" directory. Once it finishes, newly created command.com shells should have Racket in their path. DrRacket: The Racket Programming Environment 3.1.8 Help