Racket v8.8 release

Racket version 8.8 is now available from https://download.racket-lang.org/

As of this release:

  • The dependent contract form, ->i, supports a #:param element that specifies dependencies for parameter values that are set during the dynamic extent of the function call. (See: 8.2 Function Contracts)
  • The copy-file library function supports permission-management arguments. (See: 15.2 Filesystem)
  • Pressing <SHIFT>-return in DrRacket's interactions window makes it easier to edit and enter expressions without sending them to be evaluated.
  • The numeric comparison operators (<, >=, etc.) require at least two arguments in the "How To Design Programs" teaching languages.
  • Redex has improved typesetting when customized renders are used in certain multi-line situations.
  • We have fixed many bugs, and written lots of documentation. https://docs.racket-lang.org/

The following people contributed to this release:

Alex Knauth, Alexander Shopov, Andreas Schwab, Ben Greenman, Bert De Ketelaere, Bob Burger, Bogdan Popa, Cameron Moy, Chung-chieh Shan, D. Ben Knoble, Dan Anderson, David Van Horn, Geoffrey Knauth, Gustavo Massaccesi, Jamie Taylor, Jason Hemann, Jens Axel Søgaard, Jesse Alama, jestarray, Johann Rudloff, Johannes Maier, John Clements, Jon Zeppieri, Lazerbeak12345, Lîm Tsú-thuàn, Matthew Flatt, Matthias Felleisen, Mike Sperber, Niklas Larsson, Noah Ma, Pavel Panchekha, Philip McGrath, Philippe Meunier, R. Kent Dybvig, reflektoin, Robby Findler, Sam Tobin-Hochstadt, Shu-Hung You, Sorawee Porncharoenwase, and Stephen De Gabrielle

Official installers for Racket on many platforms are available from https://download.racket-lang.org/.

If you are new to Racket try our Getting started guide.

Questions and feedback about the release are welcome on Discourse.

12 Likes

Remember to

raco pkg migrate 8.7

When you have installed Racket 8.8 from https://download.racket-lang.org/

1 Like

A while back, I asked about upgrades from 8.7 to 8.8. I see your hint to raco pkg migrate 8.7.

Are the steps in Racket version 8.7 is now available - #7 by richb-hanover a way to accomplish this through the DrRacket GUI program? Thanks.

Hi
I have to admit I forget if there is a way to do this within DrRacket using the graphical package manager front end for the raco pkg tools.

What I do is

  1. Click Help
  2. Select Configure Command Line for Racket...
  3. I then open a new terminal window and enter raco pkg migrate 8.7

I think you can do it from DrRacket - but I’m not near my Mac to check.

S.

This is extremely late, but is it possible to add Sam Phillips on the list of contributors for 8.8? He contributed to one of the PRs that I submitted.

And sorry, I should have raised this issue when the internal release thread was posted.

I think it is an appropriate action.

This announcement can be edited here and the announcement text at Racket: v8.8 Release Notes can be edited at
racket-lang-org/v8.8.txt at master · racket/racket-lang-org · GitHub

Sounds fine to me. Does anyone object to making very late changes? IIRC, there are a bunch of places to make the change: here, the blog post on racket-lang.org, and the release notes associated with the download server.

Or... we could add Sam Phillips to this release, instead...

Blog post racket-lang-org/2023-02-07-racket-v8-8.md at master · racket/racket-lang-org · GitHub

Suggested text:

< correction May 2023, Sam Philips was inadvertently excluded from the contributors list.

@sorawee , do you have time to make a PR against the racket-lang-org repo in the two spots that Stephen mentioned?

If Sam is OK with it, I would support John's idea of adding Sam to the current release instead.

2 Likes

In the "just do it" frame of mind, I've added Sam to the list of contributors for 8.9. @SamPhillips you're free to object to this if you like.

Yes, go ahead.

(this message needs to be at least twenty characters long, which is why this long parenthetical was added.)

I will accept any credits and no blame. Thanks, John.