Script Plugin for DrRacket
Laurent Orseau <laurent dot orseauREMOVEME at gmail dot com>
1 Introduction
The Script Plugin is now superseded by Quickscript.
The Script Plugin’s purpose is to make it easy to extend DrRacket with small Racket scripts that can be used in the definition (or interaction) window, or to graphically interact with the user.
Creating a new script is as easy as a click on a menu item. Each script is automatically added as an item to the Scripts menu, without needing to restart DrRacket. A keyboard shortcut can be assigned to a script (via the menu item). By default, a script takes as input the currently selected text, and outputs the replacement text. There is also direct access to some elements of DrRacket GUI for advanced scripting, like DrRacket’s frame and the definition or interaction editor.
2 Some demonstration videos
Tab indent plugin: Word alignment
Abstract variable plugin: Turn an expression into a definition
3 Installation
A warning about "item-callback" may appear, you can safely ignore it.
(If the documentation does not build up correctly, run raco pkg setup --doc-index.)
You need to restart DrRacket. Now you should have a new item Scripts in the menu bar.
4 Sample scripts
Auto-completion (see "complete-word.rkt") based on some predefined snippets (particularly useful for forms like parameterize).
Search and replace in the selected text, possibly using regular expressions; some templates are also predefined (see "regexp-replace.rkt").
Dynamic abbrevation and word completion (see "dabbrev.rkt"): In the editor, removes the right-hand-side part of the current word at the cursor position if any, and completes the left-hand-side word at the cursor position with the next possible rhs word occuring in the text. The cursor position is not modified, therefore by calling this procedure repeatedly, it is possible to cycle among all the corresponding words.
Provided-by (see "provided-by.rkt"): place the cursor on a word, click on the Provided by menu item and a list of the packages defining the corresponding form shows up.
Enter submodule (see "enter-submod.rkt"): Place the cursor at the prompt in the interaction window, then click on one of the items in the Enter submodule menu and press Enter; the corresponding submodule is now evaluated and entered.
Bookmarks (see "bookmarks.rkt"): Easily navigate your files based on section comment headers (modify it to your liking!).
On-screen signature of the function at the cursor (see "def-signatures.rkt", somewhat obsoleted by the blue boxes, but can show information about forms that are not in scope).
Commit/update files from repositories (see "git.rkt").
Automatic reformatting and custom indentation (see "indent-table.rkt"), particularly useful for mid-line alignment.
ASCII frames and styling (upper-case, ASCII art, etc.) for comment titles, sections, etc. (see "sections.rkt").
Automatic comments, e.g. with today’s date, user name, licenses, etc. (see "author-date.rkt").
Color chooser: Opens the color chooser and writes a string constructing an RGB color with make-color (see "color-chooser.rkt").
Open the directory of the current file in the editor (see "open-dir.rkt".)
Open a terminal in the directory of the current file in DrRacket (see "open-terminal.rkt".)
Easily open a core Racket file in DrRacket (see "open-collects.rkt").
Turn DrRacket into a very rich text editor with slideshow (see "test-slideshow.rkt").
Add your own menus and scripts to DrRacket (see "test-menu.rkt").
...
You can easily modify all these scripts through Scripts/Manage scripts/Open script and Open script properties.
You made a cool script that you’d like to share? Why not sending me a pull request on github, or if you don’t know how that works just send me your files by email and I’ll probably include them!
5 Make your own script: First simple example
Click on the Scripts/Manage scripts/New script... menu item, and enter Reverse for the script name. This creates and opens the files reverse.rkt and reverse.rktd in the script directory. Also, a new item automatically appears in the Scripts menu.
(define (item-callback str) (list->string (reverse (string->list str))))
Then go to a new tab, type some text, select it, and click on Scripts/Reverse, and voilà!
6 Description
The plugin adds a Scripts menu to the main window. This menu has several items, followed by the (initially empty) list of active scripts.
a .rkt file, the script itself (filled with a default script template),
a .rktd file, the metadata of the script with the default values.
The script menu is rebuilt each time the user activates it, so that changes are taken into account as soon as possible.
6.1 The .rkt file
This is the script file. It must provide the item-callback function, as in the sample code. It is meant to be executable by itself, as a normal module, to ease the testing process.
The path to the current file of the definition window, or #f if there is no such file (i.e., unsaved editor).
Example:(define (item-callback str #:file f) (string-append "(in " (if f (path->string f) "no-file") ": " str)) See also: file-name-from-path, filename-extension, path->string, split-path.
#:definitions : text%
The text% editor of the current definition window.
Example: "insert-lambda.rkt"
See text% for more details.
#:interactions : text%
The text% editor of the current interaction window. Similar to #:definitions.
#:editor : text%
The text% current editor, either the definition or the interaction editor. Similar to #:definitions.
#:frame : drracket:unit:frame<%>
DrRacket’s frame. For advanced scripting.
Example:
The name of the function can also be changed, but this requires to change it also in the functions entry of the .rktd file (see below), and the function must be provided.
6.2 The .rktd file
This is the metadata file. It contains an association list dictionary that defines the configuration of the script.
Note: This file being a data file, it should almost never contain quotes. The quotes in the following definitions must thus not appear in the file.
Most entries (label, shortcut, shortcut-prefix, help-string) are the same as for the menu-item% constructor. In particular, a keyboard shortcut can be assigned to an item.
Additionally, if the label is 'separator, then a separator is added in the menu.
If an entry does not appear in the dictionary, it takes its default value.
functions : (or/c symbol? (listof (list/c symbol? string?))) = item-callback
If a symbol, it is the name of the function to call (which must be provided), and it must follow item-callback’s signature (with potential extensions).
If a list, each symbol is the name of a function, and each string is a label for that function. In this case, a sub-menu holding all these functions is created, and the label option is used as the parent menu name.
Note that a sub-menu can be shared among scripts.
Example:
The following .rktd file creates a sub-menu named My Functions (with the letter F for keyboard access), containing 3 items, one for each function and its associated letter-accessor."my-functions.rktd"
((label . "My &Functions") (functions . ((my-function1 "My Function #&1") (my-function2 "My Function #&2") (my-function3 "My Function #&3") )) (output-to . message-box) (active . #f) ) And the associated .rkt example file:"my-functions.rkt"
#lang racket/base (provide my-function1) (define (my-function1 str) "1") (provide my-function2) (define (my-function2 str) "2") (provide my-function3) (define (my-function3 str) "3") Note: The label can also be 'separator.
output-to : (one-of/c 'selection 'new-tab 'message-box #f) = 'selection
If 'selection, the output of the item-callback function replaces the selection in the current tab, or insert at the cursor if there is no selection. If 'new-tab, a new tab is created and the output of the function is written to it. If 'message-box, the output is displayed in a message-box. If #f, no output is generated.
If not persistent, each time a script is invoked, it is done so in a fresh namespace (so that less memory is used, at the expense of a slight time overhead). In particular, all variables are reset to their initial state.
On the contrary, if a script is persistent, a fresh namespace is created only the first time it is invoked, and the same namespace is re-used for the subsequent invocations.
Consider the following script:#lang racket/base (define count 0) (define (item-callback str) (set! count (+ 1 count)) (number->string count)) If the script is persistent, the counter increases at each invocation of the script via the menu, whereas it always displays 1 if the script is not persistent.
Note: Persistent scripts can be "unloaded" by clicking on the Scripts/Manage scripts/Unload persistent scripts menu item. In the previous example, this will reset the counter.
If set to #f, no menu item is generated for this dictionary.
Finally, one .rktd file can contain several such dictionaries (one after the other), which allows for multiple sub-menus and menu items and in a single script. This would have roughly the same effect as splitting such a script into several scripts, each one with its own .rktd file and its single dictionary.
If any change is made to a .rktd file, the Scripts menu will probably need to be reloaded: Click on Scripts/Manage scripts/Reload scripts menu.
7 Scripts directory
The default location of the user’s scripts is in a sub-folder of (find-system-path 'pref-dir). The directory of the user’s scripts can be changed through DrRacket’s preferences (in Edit/Preferences/Scripts). Important: The user’s script directory must have write-access for the user (which should be the case for the default settings).
The Import bundled script item is useful to either restore a bundled script to its initial contents if you have made changes, or import new scripts after an update of the plugin.
Note: Bundled scripts are automatically copied from the plugin directory to the user script directory on installation. To force the recopy of all bundled scripts, just delete the user script directory (itself, not only its contents) and restart DrRacket.
8 Updating the Script Plugin package
To update the Script Plugin once already installed, either do so through the File/Package Manager menu in DrRacket, or run raco pkg update script-plugin.
The user’s scripts will not be modified in the process. There may be new bundled scripts or new versions of some bundled scripts in the new package; they won’t be (re)installed by default in the user’s space. To (re)install them, import them with the Import bundled script menu item. To import all bundled scripts at once, delete or rename the user script directory and restart DrRacket; the directory will be recreated with all bundled scripts (then move your own scripts from the renamed folder to this new one if you had moved them).
Some scripts are persistent (like the "def-signatures" one) and require to click on the Unload persistent scripts menu item for the changes to take effect.
9 License
MIT License
Copyright (c) 2012 by Laurent Orseau <laurent.orseauREMOVEME@gmail.com>.
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.