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Arc Installation
2 points by svk 1071 days ago | 10 comments
Hi, everyone! I'm an educator. I've been reading Paul Graham's essays for a while and noticed Arc and decided to give it a try. I have downdoaded and installed racket and untared arc3.2, but I'm stuck at the installation instruction 3.Type racket -f as.scm and you should get an Arc prompt. Can anyone help, please? PS: I have almost no experience of coding; having learned Python a little bit and then quit.


2 points by Jonesk79 1060 days ago | link

After running the command, I get the following:

  > racket -f as.scm

  ; racket: undefined;

  ;  cannot reference an identifier before its definition

  ;   in module: top-level

  ; [,bt for context]

  > ; -f: undefined;

  ;  cannot reference an identifier before its definition

  ;   in module: top-level

  ; [,bt for context]

  > ; as.scm: undefined;

  ;  cannot reference an identifier before its definition

  ;   in module: top-level

  ; [,bt for context]
I think I have to somehow cd to the untarred arc3.2 but I'm not sure how to do so in the Racket App Terminal

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2 points by akkartik 1060 days ago | link

It looks like you're trying to run racket -f as.scm inside Racket. It's just a terminal command. Open a new terminal (unrelated to Racket) and type it in there.

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2 points by Jonesk79 1059 days ago | link

I got it set up in the regular terminal by adding the path to environment variables, however, it gave me the same message as before. Is there something more I should be doing with the untarred folder, maybe?

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1 point by akkartik 1059 days ago | link

I'm not sure where the disconnect lies. I think we might need to discuss details more explicitly. What OS are you on?

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2 points by Jonesk79 1059 days ago | link

You're a great help, thanks! I was typing in Racket before racket -f as.scm, when I don't need to

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2 points by jsgrahamus 1071 days ago | link

What did you see?

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3 points by jsgrahamus 1071 days ago | link

I saw this:

  Steve@DESKTOP-0SFLH1S MINGW64 /d/Steve - D/Documents - 
  D/Apps/Arc/arc3.2

  $ which racket
  /c/Program Files/Racket/racket

  Steve@DESKTOP-0SFLH1S MINGW64 /d/Steve - D/Documents - 
  D/Apps/Arc/arc3.2

  $ ls
  ac.scm  app.arc  arc.arc  as.scm  blog.arc  brackets.scm  code.arc  copyright  how-to-run-news  html.arc  libs.arc  news.arc  pprint.arc  prompt.arc  srv.arc  static/  strings.arc

  Steve@DESKTOP-0SFLH1S MINGW64 /d/Steve - D/Documents - 
  D/Apps/Arc/arc3.2

  $ racket -f as.scm
  Use (quit) to quit, (tl) to return here after an interrupt.

  arc> (* 1 2 3 4 5)
  120
arc>

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2 points by svk 1070 days ago | link

I downloaded and installed racket as described on arc installation page, and I got DrRacket version 8.0. The DrRacket window says: "Welcome to DrRacket, version 8.0 [cs]. Language: No language chosen; memory limit: 128 MB. DrRacket cannot process programs until you choose a programming language. Either select the “Choose Language…” item in the “Language” menu, or get guidance. > I've tried to type racket -f as.scm, but it doesn't work. I've type the same instruction in my MacBook Terminal, it doesn't work either. I don't know what to do next. Have I got the wrong racket? Thanks, jsgrahamus, for your reply :)

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3 points by zck 1070 days ago | link

The "racket -f as.scm" is supposed to be done in your terminal, you're right! DrRacket is a different thing that is very cool, but not the tool to run Arc with.

When you type it in your terminal, what does it say? If it says something like "racket not found", try downloading the racket installer from https://download.racket-lang.org/.

If it installs correctly, you should be able to type "racket" (without quotes) in your terminal, and get a message "Welcome to Racket 8.0". To quit, press Ctrl-D, or type (exit) with the parentheses, then hit enter.

If that works, you should be able to run "racket -f as.scm".

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3 points by svk 1070 days ago | link

Thank you so much, zck :) I've used a combination of your helpful suggestions, stack overflow, and cd command to get to the right folder, and now it works. I got the arc command prompt (arc>) in my terminal now. I will take my time to explore the tutorial on Arc. I feel good that this community is really helpful. Thanks everyone!

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