8.14
Warning: the features described in this section are experimental
and may not work correctly. Some of the features may change by
the next release.
Typed Racket provides support for modular programming with the units
and signatures provided by the racket/unit library.
5.1 Special forms🔗ℹ
The special forms below are provided by the typed/racket/unit
and typed/racket modules, but not by
typed/racket/base. The typed/racket/unit module
additionally provides all other bindings from racket/unit.
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| extension-decl | | = | | | | | | | | | extends sig-id | | | | | | | | sig-elem | | = | | [id : type] |
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Binds an identifier to a signature and registers the identifier in the signature
environment with the specified type bindings. Sigantures in Typed Racket allow
only specifications of variables and their types. Variable and syntax definitions
are not allowed in the
define-signature form. This is only a limitation
of the
define-signature form in Typed Racket.
As in untyped Racket, the extends clause includes all elements of
extended signature and any implementation of the new signature can be used
as an implementation of the extended signature.
| (unit | | (import sig-spec ...) | | (export sig-spec ...) | | init-depends-decl | | unit-body-expr-or-defn | | ...) |
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| sig-spec | | = | | sig-id | | | | | | | (prefix id sig-spec) | | | | | | | (rename sig-spec (id id) ...) | | | | | | | (only sig-spec id ...) | | | | | | | (except sig-spec id ...) | | | | | | | | init-depends-decl | | = | | | | | | | | | (init-depend sig-id ...) |
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The typed version of the Racket
unit form. Unit expressions in Typed Racket
do not support tagged signatures with the
tag keyword.
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| def-sig-spec | | = | | sig-id | | | | | | | (prefix id def-sig-spec) | | | | | | | (rename def-sig-spec (id id) ...) |
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| link-binding | | = | | (link-id : sig-id) | | | | | | | | linkage-decl | | = | | ((link-binding ...) unit-expr link-id ...) |
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| infer-link-import | | = | | sig-id | | | | | | | (link-id : sig-id) | | | | | | | | infer-link-export | | = | | link-id | | | | | | | sig-id | | | | | | | | infer-linkage-decl | | = | | | ((link-binding ...) unit-id | | tagged-link-id ...) |
| | | | | | | unit-id |
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| (Unit | | (import sig-id ...) | | (export sig-id ...) | | optional-init-depend-clause | | optional-body-type-clause) |
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| optional-init-depend-clause | | = | | | | | | | | | (init-depend sig-id ...) | | | | | | | | optional-body-type-clause | | = | | | | | | | | | type | | | | | | | (Values type ...) |
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The type of a unit with the given imports, exports, initialization dependencies,
and body type. Omitting the init-depend clause is equivalent to an
init-depend clause that contains no signatures. The body type is the
type of the last expression in the unit’s body. If a unit contains only
definitions and no expressions its body type is
Void. Omitting the body
type is equivalent to specifying a body type of
Void.
Example:
The supertype of all unit types. Values of this type cannot be linked or invoked.
The primary use of is for the reflective operation
unit?5.3 Interacting with Untyped Code🔗ℹ
(require/typed m rt-clause ...)
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| rt-clause | | = | | [maybe-renamed t] | | | | | | | | [#:struct name ([f : t] ...) | | struct-option ...] |
| | | | | | | | [#:struct (name parent) ([f : t] ...) | | struct-option ...] |
| | | | | | | [#:opaque t pred] | | | | | | | [#:signature name ([id : t] ...)] | | | | | | | | maybe-renamed | | = | | id | | | | | | | (orig-id new-id) | | | | | | | | struct-option | | = | | #:constructor-name constructor-id | | | | | | | #:extra-constructor-name constructor-id |
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The
#:signature clause of
require/typed requires the given
signature and registers it in the signature environment with the specified
bindings. Unlike other identifiers required with
require/typed, signatures
are not protected by contracts.
Signatures are not runtime values and therefore do not need to be protected by contracts.
Examples:
Typed Racket will infer whether the named signature extends
another signature. It is an error to require a signature that extends a signature
not present in the signature environment.
Examples:
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eval:6:0: Type Checker: Error in macro expansion -- required |
signature extends an untyped signature |
required signature: a-sub^ |
extended signature: a^ |
in: UNTYPED-2 |
Requiring a signature from an untyped module that contains variable definitions is an error
in Typed Racket.
Examples:
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eval:8:0: Type Checker: Error in macro expansion -- untyped |
signatures containing definitions are prohibited |
in: UNTYPED |
5.4 Limitations🔗ℹ
5.4.1 Signature Forms🔗ℹ
Unlike Racket’s define-signature form, in Typed Racket
define-signature only supports one kind of signature element that
specifies the types of variables in the signature. In particular Typed Racket’s
define-signature form does not support uses of define-syntaxes,
define-values, or define-values-for-export . Requiring an untyped
signature that contains definitions in a typed module will result in an error.
Examples:
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eval:10:0: Type Checker: Error in macro expansion -- untyped |
signatures containing definitions are prohibited |
in: UNTYPED |
5.4.2 Contracts and Unit Static Information🔗ℹ
Unit values that flow between typed and untyped contexts are wrapped in
unit/c contracts to guard the unit’s imports, exports, and result upon
invocation. When identifers that are additionally bound to static information
about a unit, such as those defined by define-unit, flow between typed
and untyped contexts contract application can result the static information
becoming inaccessible.
Examples:
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eval:12:0: untyped-invoke-unit/infer: unknown unit |
definition |
at: u@ |
in: (untyped-invoke-unit/infer u@) |
When an identifier bound to static unit information flows from a typed module to
an untyped module, however, the situation is worse. Because unit static
information is bound to an identifier as a macro definition, any use of the
typed unit is disallowed in untyped contexts.
Examples:
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eval:14:0: Type Checker: Macro u@ from typed module used in |
untyped code |
in: u@ |
5.4.3 Signatures and Internal Definition Contexts🔗ℹ
Typed Racket’s define-signature form is allowed in both top-level and
internal definition contexts. As the following example shows, defining
signatures in internal definiition contexts can be problematic.
Example:
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eval:15:0: Type Checker: type mismatch |
expected: (Unit (import a^) (export) (init-depend a^) |
AnyValues) |
given: (Unit (import a^) (export) (init-depend a^) |
Positive-Byte) |
in: a^ |
Even though the unit imports a signature named a^, the a^
provided for the import refers to the top-level a^ signature and the
type system prevents invoking the unit. This issue can be avoided by defining
signatures only at the top-level of a module.
5.4.4 Tagged Signatures🔗ℹ
Various unit forms in Racket allow for signatures to be tagged to support the
definition of units that import or export the same signature multiple times.
Typed Racket does not support the use of tagged signatures, using the
tag keyword, anywhere in the various unit forms described above.
5.4.5 Structural Matching and Other Unit Forms🔗ℹ
Typed Racket supports only those unit forms described above. All other bindings
exported by racket/unit are not supported in the type system. In
particular, the structural matching forms including unit/new-import-export
and unit/s are unsupported.