Racket is a
ProgrammingLanguage (and implementation) descended from
SchemeLanguage, including an IDE and a large number of built in libraries and tools. Racket also includes several secondary language dialects including R5RS, R6RS, lazy and typed variants, and teaching languages.
Racket is the project formerly known as
PltScheme, and the programs
DrScheme (The IDE) and
MzScheme (The interpreter) are now
DrRacket and Racket. Details on the renaming are at
http://racket-lang.org/new-name.html and details on the language dialects at
http://docs.racket-lang.org/guide/dialects.html.
The Racket language is based on R5RS Scheme, but includes way more features in the base language:
This is on top of all expected features of
SchemeLanguage. See the TOC of the guide at
http://docs.racket-lang.org/guide/index.html.
Racket is presently very
BatteriesIncluded. You can get a feature overview at the documentation index:
http://docs.racket-lang.org/
Built-in libraries of interest (to me):
Racket has a recent story about a successful low-level language to high-level language rewrite. As of Racket 5.1, the graphics layer has been rewritten from 200,000 lines of
CeePlusPlus to 30,000 lines of
RacketLanguage on newer and better libraries. (
http://blog.racket-lang.org/2010/12/racket-version-5.html)
Performance-wise, Racket seems to currently (early 2011) be running only slightly slower (2-3x) than the statically typed languages like
JavaLanguage and
HaskellLanguage. This is according to the
ComputerLanguageBenchmarksGame. This places it faster than any other dynamic language on the list.
CategoryScheme