Send to REPL and multi-module projects

[a1exsh]

I am starting a project where I will have many module files, but it seems that "send to REPL" functions are not module-aware, or am I just missing some detail?

Given the following two files:

mod1.rkt:

#lang racket/base

(require "./mod2.rkt")

(define t 1)

and mod2.rkt:

#lang racket/base

(define t 2)

I do racket-run while visiting mod1.rkt. Then I visit mod2.rkt and try to send the definition of t with racket-send-definition. It does succeed, but overrides the t from mod1.

I need to be able to re-define in a module-aware manner (i.e. the way it works in CIDER for Clojure).

[greghendershott]

The REPL is "inside" whichever module was last run.

• By default, there is one REPL buffer shared among all edit buffers. Whichever edit buffer was last racket-run, is the one whose module the REPL is live inside. So in this default approach, you would need to re-run mod2 before sending.

• OR, you can configure it so that there is one REPL buffer unique to each edit buffer. To do so, see https://racket-mode.com/#Edit-buffers-and-REPL-buffers and https://racket-mode.com/#racket_002drepl_002dbuffer_002dname_002dfunction. TL;DR: (setq racket-buffer-name-function #'racket-buffer-name-unique). In this approach, you still need to racket-run each edit buffer at least once, to create its unique, dedicated REPL.

I'm not sure which approach you'd prefer, or if this answers your question?

---

Do keep in mind that Clojure namespaces are not exactly the same thing as Racket modules. Racket modules are intended to be evaluated as a whole, and are not necessarily equivalent to a series of REPL inputs (especially in the face of certain macro expansions).

Although Racket Mode supports a REPL, and therefore supports "send" as a convenience for copy and paste, and this works for certain simple explorations... the most consistent workflow will be to edit the source file, and re-run it (i.e. re-evaluate the module as a whole).

[a1exsh]

Hm, I'm aiming to develop a video game, and hot-reloading is critical for faster feedback loop, because it eliminates the need for re-starting the game and navigating to the place I was editing (restoring the internal state).

The single-module workflow seems to satisfy my needs, but there is no way to fit the whole game in a single module/file. Re-running the module seems to discard the state, which is not what I need...

[greghendershott]

It might be worth asking for advice on https://racket.discourse.group/.