defconstant with slime - compilation

Every time I try to reload a file that uses DEFCONSTANT into the slime repl, it complains about me rebinding the constants. How do I tell it I want it to do this, or what is a simple way to have slime exit and reload the inferior lisp process on recompiling files that use constants?

Alternatives:
Move constants into their own file, which, hopefully, doesn't change very often.
Change the constants into vars until you build a release candidate. Your Release TODO list should contain an item that tells you to convert these vars back into constants. In other words, temporarily change DEFCONSTANT to DEFVAR.

Related

GoLand IDE: How to remove syntax highlighting for unused variables?

Problem: When I just declare a variable, GoLand immediately highlights it with an error like: "The variable is not used anywhere"; I don't like this behavior of the IDE. I have not yet had time to use it anywhere, but only announced it.
Actually, subject, tell me, please, how to remove this syntax highlighting (namely, about unused variables) in GoLand?
P.S.
There is no benefit from manipulating the: Settings -> Editor -> Inspections -> Go
This does not seem possible with Goland, of VsCode Go (which has the same behavior)
Considering an unused variable is an error for Go itself, the IDE simply reflects that.
It can be jarring though, and other Goland issues reflect this: for example, GO-2374 mentions the same kind of issue with exported functions:
All exported functions (starting with a capital letter) that are not used within a library itself, are marked as unused.
This seems odd to me. Most exported functions in a library are never used within the library itself, but I think it is wrong to mark them as unused since they are not primarily meant to be used within the library.
I still prefer the current highlight, as it makes sure I do not introduce a new variable without using as soon as possible.
Perhaps if you have that new var, do a
_ = yourVar after that.
(Then it is in use)
Warning: scan for "_ =" afterwards yourself to see if you still have these.
The fact that the editor "complains" is just Go. Go doesn't allow you to declare vars that are not in use.

Is there a way to use load-mode for files in DrRacket?

I would like to use DrRacket in the same way that it works for some of the ‘legacy languages’. In particular, I would like to go through a file as if it were a sequence of commands issued to the interpreter, and not as a module.
Essentially I want to run at least one file in load-mode, but I’m not sure if it’s possible to do it using DrRacket.
Ideally, I could:
*Specify a file that sets the language and maybe loads some modules, which runs by default at startup.
*Then load a file that is not a module (and has no #lang specification) and run it.
It’d also be nice (since I want to use Scheme) if it would allow redefinitions, just as the legacy languages do.
Yes you can, and in fact, the 'legacy languages' (and 'teaching languages') are actually just implemented as DrRacket Plugins. You can remove them from your copy of DrRacket and even add new ones.
There are various ways to do this depending on if you are okay with a #lang (or #reader) saved in the file. If you're not, its still doable, you just need to use drracket:get/extend:extend-unit-frame to add your tool to DrRacket, and possibly drracket:get/extend:extend-definitions-text to easily extend the definitions window.
I won't go into the details of making a generic DrRacket plugin here, that belongs in a different question...also the DrRacket Plugins Manual has the information you need.1 I will, however, point you in the direction of how you can use DrRacket in load mode out of the box.
Check out the racket/load language. It is designed to run each expression in the top level as if you were at a REPL typing it. I find it very useful for testing the differences between Racket module and top level interactions.
Of course, if you don't make a DrRacket plugin, you will still need to put:
#lang racket/load
at the top of your file, but you otherwise get a 'legacy mode' out of the box.
1If it doesn't please continue to ask questions, and of course we always love help from anyone who is willing to contribute. <3

How many times does a Common Lisp compiler recompile?

While not all Common Lisp implementations do compilation to machine code, some of them do, including SBCL and CCL.
In C/C++, if the source files don't change, the binary output of a C/C++ compiler will also not change, assuming the underlying system remains the same.
In a Common Lisp compiler, the compilation is not under the user's direct control, unlike C/C++. My question is that if the Lisp source files haven't changed, under what circumstances will a CL compiler compile the code more than once, and why? If possible, a simple illustrative example would be helpful.
I think that the question is based on some misconceptions. The compiler doesn't compile files, and it's not something that the user has no control over. The compiler is quite readily available through the compile function. The compiler operates on code, not on files. E.g., you can type at the REPL
CL-USER> (compile nil (list 'lambda (list 'x) (list '+ 'x 'x)))
#<FUNCTION (LAMBDA (X)) {100460E24B}>
NIL
NIL
There's no file involved at all. However, there is also a compile-file function, but notice that its description is:
compile-file transforms the contents of the file specified by
input-file into implementation-dependent binary data which are placed
in the file specified by output-file.
The contents of the file are compiled. Then that compiled file can be loaded. (You can also load uncompiled source files, too.) I think your question might boil down to asking under what circumstances would compile-file generate a file with different contents. I think that's really implementation dependent, and it's not really predictable. I don't know that your characterization of compilers for other languages necessarily holds either:
In C/C++, if the source files don't change, the binary output of a
C/C++ compiler will also not change, assuming the underlying system
remains the same.
What if the compiler happens to include a timestamp into the output in some data segment? Then you'd get different binary output every time. It's true that some common scripted compilation/build systems (e.g., make and similar) will check whether previous output can be reused based on whether the input files have changed in the meantime. That doesn't really say what the compiler does, though.
The rules are pretty much the same, but in Common Lisp, it's not a practice to separate declarations from implementation, so usually you must recompile every dependency to be sure. This is a shared practical consequence of dynamic environments.
Imagining there was such separation in place, the following are blantant examples (clearly not exhaustive) of changes that require recompiling specific dependent files, as the output may be different:
A changed package definition
A changed macro character or a change in its code
A changed macro
Adding or removing a inline or notinline declaration
A change in a global type or function type declaration
A changed function used in #., defvar, defparameter, defconstant, load-time-value, eql specializer, make-load-form generated code, defmacro et al (e.g. setf expanders)...
A change in the Lisp compiler, or in the base image
I mean, you can see it's not trivial to determine which files need to be recompiled. Sometimes, the answer is "all subsequent files", e.g. changing the " (double-quotes) macro-character, which might affect every literal string, or the compiler evolved in a non-backwards compatible way. In essence, we end where we started: you can only be sure with a full recompile and not reusing fasls across compilations. And sometimes it's faster than determining the minimum set of files that need to be recompiled.
In practice, you end up compiling single definitions a lot in development (e.g. with Slime) and not recompiling files when there's a fasl as old or younger than the source file. Many times, you reuse files from e.g. Quicklisp. But for testing and deployment, I advise clearing all fasls and recompiling everything.
There have been efforts to automate minimum dependency compilation with SBCL, but I think it's too slow when you change the interim projects more often that not (it involves a lot of forking, so in Windows it's either infeasible or very slow). However, it may be a time saver for base libraries that rarely change, if at all.
Another approach is to make custom base images with base libraries built-in, i.e. those you always load. It'll save both compilation and load times.

C-u M-x - recompile error: "Wrong type argument: consp, nil"

If I do C-u M-x recompile inside a buffer that's not the *compilation* buffer, (i.e. the source file for instance), I get this error - "Wrong type argument: consp, nil" after it prompts for the compilation command. Why is this? I want to run recompile interactively as comint works, sometimes outside the compilation buffer. How do I do this?
Try using emacs -Q, just to be sure (yes, I know you said you commented out all of your init file, but just to be sure -- and it's a lot easier to do than comment-out everything).
Next, set debug-on-error to t -- You can do M-x toggle-debug-on-error to do that, if you prefer.
Next, provoke the error and look at the debugger *Backtrace*. It will show you not only which function raised the error because it expected a cons and got nil instead, but also what function called it, passing the bad argument. And so on down the stack.
If necessary, you can click mouse-2 on functions on the stack (at the left, to see their source code. Or put the cursor on them and use C-h f to see their doc -- in particular, what arguments they expect and what their return values should be.
In this way it's pretty easy to find the code that is the culprit. (Most likely, in spite of what you said, it is some non-vanilla Emacs Lisp code you loaded somehow.)
Also, state your emacs version : M-x emacs-version. If you are using a development snapshot then the problem could come from vanilla code (i.e., emacs -Q); otherwise, that's not so likely.
Also, you say you get the error after it prompts you. Immediately after it prompts, before you type anything? After you type a command name and hit RET? Try to be more specific.
Update after your comment:
Load library compile.el (not .elc). Then do M-x debug-on-entry recompile, then step through the debugger using d when function recompile is entered. What you are interested in is when compilation-start is called (applied to its args).
It seems that the value of compilation-arguments that is passed to it is no good. The command name you enter at the prompt becomes the first of the list of compilation-arguments. The others are taken from when you last invoked compile: recompile just reuses the same arguments (except the command name): (mode name-function highlight-regexp)mode name-function highlight-regexp).
However, be aware that compilation-arguments is buffer-local. So if you changed to a different buffer then its value is likely not what you need. You need the value from your last compile, so you should do the recompile in the same buffer where you did compile.
(FWIW, I don't use (re)compile myself, as I don't develop software anymore. I just took a look at the source code.)
Such kind of errors usually depicts a problem with your configuration. Try to investigate messages buffer output. There can be some clues there.
And of course, it is normal to call a recompile command from a buffer with your code. It is a convention to bind it to C-c C-c.

Can't list source using debug in ruby 1.8 [duplicate]

With this minimal ruby code:
require 'debug'
puts
in a file called, e.g. script.rb
if I launch it like so: ruby -rdebug script.rb
and then press l on the debug prompt, I get the listing, as expected
if I instead run it normally as ruby script.rb
when pressing l I get:
(rdb:1) l
[-3, 6] in script.rb
No sourcefile available for script.rb
The error message seems misleading at best: the working directory hasn't changed, and the file is definitely still there!
I'm unable to find documentation on this behavior (I tried it on both jruby and mri, and the behavior is the same)
I know about 'debugger' and 'pry', but they serve a different use case:
I'm used to other scripting languages with a builtin debug module, that can let me put a statement anywhere in the code to drop me in a debug shell, inspect code, variables and such... the advantage of having it builtin it's that it is available everywhere, without having to set up an environment for it, or even when I'm on a machine that's not my own
I could obviously workaround this by always calling the interpreter with -rdebug and manually setting the breakpoint, but I find this more work than the alternative
After looking into the debug source code, I found a workaround and a fix:
the workaround can be:
trace on
next
trace off
list
this will let you get the listing without restarting the interpreter with -rdebug, with the disadvantage that you'll get some otherwise unwanted output from the tracing, and you'll be able to see it only after moving by one statement
for the fix: the problem is that the SCRIPT_LINES__ Hash lacks a value for the current file... apparently it's only set inside tracer.rb
I've changed line 161, and changed the Hash with a subclass that tracks where []= has been called from, and I wasn't able to dig up the actual code that does the work when stepping into a function that comes from a different file
Also: I haven't found a single person yet who actively uses this module (I asked both on #ruby, #jruby and #pry on freenode), and together with the fact that it uses a function that is now obsolete it leads me to be a bit pessimistic about the maintenance state of this module
nonetheless, I submitted a pull request for the fix (it's actually quite dumb and simple, but to do otherwise I'd need a deeper understanding of this module, and possibly to refactor some parts of it... but if this module isn't actively maintaned, I'm not sure that's a good thing to put effort on)
I suspect the Ruby interpreter doesn't have the ability to load the sourcefile without the components in the debug module. So, no -rdebug, no access to the sourcefile. And I agree it is a misleading error. "Debugging features not loaded" might be better.

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