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# Command-Line Tools and Your Editor of Choice
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Although DrRacket is the easiest way for most people to start with
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Racket, many Racketeers prefer command-line tools and other text
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editors. The Racket distribution includes several command-line tools,
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and popular editors include or support packages to make them work well
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with Racket.
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1 Command-Line Tools
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1.1 Compilation and Configuration: `raco`
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1.2 Interactive evaluation
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1.3 Shell completion
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2 Emacs
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2.1 Major Modes
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2.2 Minor Modes
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2.3 Packages specific to Evil Mode
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3 Vim
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4 Sublime Text
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## 1. Command-Line Tools
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Racket provides, as part of its standard distribution, a number of
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command-line tools that can make racketeering more pleasant.
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### 1.1. Compilation and Configuration: `raco`
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The `raco` \(short for “**Ra**cket **co**mmand”\) program provides a
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command-line interface to many additional tools for compiling Racket
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programs and maintaining a Racket installation.
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* `raco make` compiles Racket source to bytecode.
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For example, if you have a program `"take-over-world.rkt"` and you’d
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like to compile it to bytecode, along with all of its dependencies, so
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that it loads more quickly, then run
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`raco make take-over-the-world.rkt`
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The bytecode file is written as `"take-over-the-world_rkt.zo"` in a
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`"compiled"` subdirectory; `".zo"` is the file suffix for a bytecode
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file.
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* `raco setup` manages a Racket installation, including manually
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installed packages.
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For example, if you create your own library collection called
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`"take-over"`, and you’d like to build all bytecode and documentation
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for the collection, then run
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`raco setup take-over`
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* `raco pkg` manages packages that can be installed through the Racket
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package manager.
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For example, to see the list of installed packages run:
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`raco pkg show`
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To install a new package named `<package-name>` run:
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`raco pkg install <package-name>`
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See \[missing\] for more details about package management.
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For more information on `raco`, see \[missing\].
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### 1.2. Interactive evaluation
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The Racket REPL provides everything you expect from a modern interactive
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environment. For example, it provides an `,enter` command to have a REPL
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that runs in the context of a given module, and an `,edit` command to
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invoke your editor \(as specified by the `EDITOR` environment variable\)
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on the file you entered. A `,drracket` command makes it easy to use your
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favorite editor to write code, and still have DrRacket at hand to try
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things out.
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For more information, see \[missing\].
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### 1.3. Shell completion
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Shell auto-completion for `bash` and `zsh` is available in
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`"share/pkgs/shell-completion/racket-completion.bash"` and
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`"share/pkgs/shell-completion/racket-completion.zsh"`, respectively. To
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enable it, just run the appropriate file from your `.bashrc` or your
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`.zshrc`.
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The `"shell-completion"` collection is only available in the Racket Full
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distribution. The completion scripts are also available
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[online](https://github.com/racket/shell-completion).
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## 2. Emacs
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Emacs has long been a favorite among Lispers and Schemers, and is
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popular among Racketeers as well.
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### 2.1. Major Modes
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* [Racket mode](https://github.com/greghendershott/racket-mode) provides
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thorough syntax highlighting and DrRacket-style REPL and buffer
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execution support for Emacs.
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Racket mode can be installed via [MELPA](http://melpa.milkbox.net) or
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manually from the Github repository.
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* [Quack](http://www.neilvandyke.org/quack/) is an extension of Emacs’s
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`scheme-mode` that provides enhanced support for Racket, including
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highlighting and indentation of Racket-specific forms, and
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documentation integration.
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Quack is included in the Debian and Ubuntu repositories as part of the
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`emacs-goodies-el` package. A Gentoo port is also available \(under
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the name `app-emacs/quack`\).
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* [Geiser](http://www.nongnu.org/geiser/) provides a programming
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environment where the editor is tightly integrated with the Racket
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REPL. Programmers accustomed to environments such as Slime or Squeak
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should feel at home using Geiser. Geiser requires GNU Emacs 23.2 or
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better.
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Quack and Geiser can be used together, and complement each other
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nicely. More information is available in the [Geiser
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manual](http://www.nongnu.org/geiser/).
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Debian and Ubuntu packages for Geiser are available under the name
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`geiser`.
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* Emacs ships with a major mode for Scheme, `scheme-mode`, that while
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not as featureful as the above options, works reasonably well for
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editing Racket code. However, this mode does not provide support for
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Racket-specific forms.
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* No Racket program is complete without documentation. Scribble support
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for Emacs is available with Neil Van Dyke’s [Scribble
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Mode](http://www.neilvandyke.org/scribble-emacs/).
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In addition, `texinfo-mode` \(included with GNU Emacs\) and plain
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text modes work well when editing Scribble documents. The Racket
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major modes above are not really suited to this task, given how
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different Scribble’s syntax is from Racket’s.
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### 2.2. Minor Modes
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* [Paredit](http://mumble.net/~campbell/emacs/paredit.el) is a minor
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mode for pseudo-structurally editing programs in Lisp-like languages.
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In addition to providing high-level S-expression editing commands, it
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prevents you from accidentally unbalancing parentheses.
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Debian and Ubuntu packages for Paredit are available under the name
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`paredit-el`.
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* [Smartparens](https://github.com/Fuco1/smartparens) is a minor mode
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for editing s-expressions, keeping parentheses balanced, etc. Similar
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to Paredit.
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* Alex Shinn’s
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[scheme-complete](http://synthcode.com/wiki/scheme-complete) provides
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intelligent, context-sensitive code completion. It also integrates
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with Emacs’s `eldoc` mode to provide live documentation in the
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minibuffer.
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While this mode was designed for R5RS, it can still be useful for
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Racket development. The tool is unaware of large portions of the
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Racket standard library, and there may be some discrepancies in the
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live documentation in cases where Scheme and Racket have diverged.
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* The
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[RainbowDelimiters](http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/RainbowDelimiters)
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mode colors parentheses and other delimiters according to their
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nesting depth. Coloring by nesting depth makes it easier to know, at a
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glance, which parentheses match.
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* [ParenFace](http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ParenFace) lets you choose
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in which face \(font, color, etc.\) parentheses should be displayed.
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Choosing an alternate face makes it possible to make “tone down”
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parentheses.
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### 2.3. Packages specific to Evil Mode
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* [on-parens](https://github.com/willghatch/emacs-on-parens) is a
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wrapper for smartparens motions to work better with evil-mode’s normal
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state.
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* [evil-surround](https://github.com/timcharper/evil-surround) provides
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commands to add, remove, and change parentheses and other delimiters.
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* [evil-textobj-anyblock](https://github.com/noctuid/evil-textobj-anyblock)
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adds a text-object that matches the closest of any parenthesis or
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other delimiter pair.
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## 3. Vim
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Many distributions of Vim ship with support for Scheme, which will
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mostly work for Racket. You can enable filetype detection of Racket
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files as Scheme with the following:
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`if has("autocmd")`
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`au BufReadPost *.rkt,*.rktl set filetype=scheme`
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`endif`
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Alternatively, you can use the
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[vim-racket](https://github.com/wlangstroth/vim-racket) plugin to enable
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auto-detection, indentation, and syntax highlighting specifically for
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Racket files. Using the plugin is the easiest method, but if you would
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like to roll your own settings or override settings from the plugin, add
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something like the following to your `".vimrc"` file:
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`if has("autocmd")`
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`au BufReadPost *.rkt,*.rktl set filetype=racket`
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`au filetype racket set lisp`
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`au filetype racket set autoindent`
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`endif`
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However, if you take this path you may need to do more work when
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installing plugins because many Lisp-related plugins and scripts for vim
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are not aware of Racket. You can also set these conditional commands in
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a `"scheme.vim"` or `"racket.vim"` file in the `"ftplugin"` subdirectory
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of your vim folder.
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Most installations of vim will automatically have useful defaults
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enabled, but if your installation does not, you will want to set at
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least the following in your `".vimrc"` file:
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`" Syntax highlighting`
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`syntax on`
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`" These lines make vim load various plugins`
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`filetype on`
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`filetype indent on`
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`filetype plugin on`
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`" No tabs!`
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`set expandtab`
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Indentation
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You can enable indentation for Racket by setting both the `lisp` and
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`autoindent` options in Vim. However, the indentation is limited and not
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as complete as what you can get in Emacs. You can also use Dorai
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Sitaram’s [scmindent](https://github.com/ds26gte/scmindent) for better
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indentation of Racket code. The instructions on how to use the indenter
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are available on the website.
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If you use the built-in indenter, you can customize it by setting how to
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indent certain keywords. The vim-racket plugin mentioned above sets some
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default keywords for you. You can add keywords yourself in your
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`".vimrc"` file like this:
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`" By default vim will indent arguments after the function name`
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`" but sometimes you want to only indent by 2 spaces similar to`
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`" how DrRacket indents define. Set the `lispwords' variable to`
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`" add function names that should have this type of indenting.`
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`set
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lispwords+=public-method,override-method,private-method,syntax-case,syntax-rules`
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`set lispwords+=..more..`
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Highlighting
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The [Rainbow
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Parenthesis](http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1230)
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script for vim can be useful for more visible parenthesis matching.
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Syntax highlighting for Scheme is shipped with vim on many platforms,
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which will work for the most part with Racket. The vim-racket script
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provides good default highlighting settings for you.
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Structured Editing
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The [Slimv](http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2531) plugin
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has a paredit mode that works like paredit in Emacs. However, the plugin
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is not aware of Racket. You can either set vim to treat Racket as Scheme
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files or you can modify the paredit script to load on `".rkt"` files.
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Scribble
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Vim support for writing scribble documents is provided by the
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[scribble.vim](http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3756)
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plugin.
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Miscellaneous
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If you are installing many vim plugins \(not necessary specific to
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Racket\), we recommend using a plugin that will make loading other
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plugins easier.
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[Pathogen](http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2332) is one
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plugin that does this; using it, you can install new plugins by
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extracting them to subdirectories in the `"bundle"` folder of your Vim
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installation.
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## 4. Sublime Text
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The [Racket package](https://sublime.wbond.net/packages/Racket) provides
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support for syntax highlighting and building for Sublime Text.
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