Table Of Content

RACKET PROGRAMMING THE FUN WAY From Strings to Turing Machines by James W. Stelly San Francisco RACKET PROGRAMMING THE FUN WAY. Copyright © 2021 by James W. Stelly. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher. ISBN-13: 978-1-7185-0082-2 (print) ISBN-13: 978-1-7185-0083-9 (ebook) Publisher: William Pollock Executive Editor: Barbara Yien Production Editor: Dapinder Dosanjh Developmental Editor: Alex Freed Interior Design: Octopod Studios Cover Illustration: Gina Redman Technical Reviewer: Matthew Flatt Copyeditor: Chris Cartwright Proofreader: Emelie Battaglia For information on distribution, translations, or bulk sales, please contact No Starch Press, Inc. directly: No Starch Press, Inc. 245 8th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 phone: 415.863.9900; fax: 415.863.9950; [email protected] www.nostarch.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Stelly, James W., author. Title: Racket programming the fun way: from strings to turing machines / by James W. Stelly. Description: San Francisco : No Starch Press, [2021]. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020022884 (print) | LCCN 2020022885 (ebook) | ISBN 9781718500822 | ISBN 9781718500839 (ebook) | ISBN 1718500822 Subjects: LCSH: Racket (Computer program language) | LISP (Computer program language) | Computer programming. Classification: LCC QA76.73.R33 S 2020 (print) | LCC QA76.73.R33 (ebook) | DDC 005.13/3–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020022884 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020022885 No Starch Press and the No Starch Press logo are registered trademarks of No Starch Press, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, we are using the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. The information in this book is distributed on an “As Is” basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor No Starch Press, Inc. shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in it. I dedicate this book to my mom and dad who patiently (and at times not so patiently) endured my many childhood pranks. About the Author James W. Stelly has been dabbling with computers as both a hobbyist and professional for over four decades. He has degrees in both computer science and mathematics from the University of Houston. As a hobbyist, his projects include robotics using Arduino and Raspberry Pi along with numerous explorations of programming languages ranging from machine language to C++ (and many others). His day job (now part time since retirement) is developing a line of business applications primarily aimed at record keeping and data management. About the Technical Reviewer Matthew Flatt is a professor in the School of Computing at the University of Utah, where he works on extensible programming languages, run-time systems, and applications of functional programming. He is one of the developers of the Racket programming language and a co-author of the introductory programming textbook How to Design Programs. BRIEF CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: Racket Basics Chapter 2: Arithmetic and Other Numerical Paraphernalia Chapter 3: Function Fundamentals Chapter 4: Plotting, Drawing, and a Bit of Set Theory Chapter 5: GUI: Getting Users Interested Chapter 6: Data Chapter 7: Searching for Answers Chapter 8: Logic Programming Chapter 9: Computing Machines Chapter 10: TRAC: The Racket Algebraic Calculator Appendix A: Number Bases Appendix B: Special Symbols Bibliography Index CONTENTS IN DETAIL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION 1 RACKET BASICS Atomic Data Lists A First Look at Lists S-Expressions List Structure A Few Useful List Functions Defines, Assigns, and Variables Symbols, Identifiers, and Keywords Equality Strings and Things Characters Useful String Functions String Conversion and Formatting Functions Vectors Accessing Vector Elements Useful Vector Functions Using structs Controlling Output Summary 2 ARITHMETIC AND OTHER NUMERICAL PARAPHERNALIA Booleans The Numerical Tower Integers Rationals Reals Complex Numbers Numeric Comparison Combining Data Types Built-in Functions Infix Notation Summary 3 FUNCTION FUNDAMENTALS What Is a Function? Lambda Functions Higher-Order Functions Lexical Scoping Conditional Expressions: It’s All About Choices I’m Feeling a Bit Loopy! Purity The Power of the Dark Side The for Family Time for Some Closure Applications I Don’t Have a Queue The Tower of Hanoi Fibonacci and Friends The Insurance Salesman Problem Summary