racketsicprackunit

Is it possible to use rackunit in DrRacket with language set to sicp, and if so, how?


I'm starting to work through SICP using DrRacket. I installed the sicp package, and declared #lang sicp at the top of the unit test file and then (require rackunit "xxx.scm"), but I get an unbound identifier error. Is there a mistake, or is it not possible to use rackunit with the sicp package in this way?


Solution

  • You need to use #%require.

    #%require is actually a primitive type in the lowest level of racket and it is slightly different than require:

    #lang sicp
    (#%require rackunit "xxx.scm")
    

    The file you want to test becomes a module so you can use it from other code by providing the identifiers you want to expose:

    (#%provide procedure-name)
    

    You can also just require a few needed forms. eg. error and time from racket/base:

    (#%require (only racket/base error time))
    

    A hint on finding out where they are is to search the online manuals or from Help > Racket documentation in DrRacket. Eg. here is an example of searching error where you have many choices, but the racket prefixed ones are the ones you're looking for.

    NB: Not all forms are compatible across languages. Eg. R5RS has different pair implementation than #lang racket