Racket-lang: A Programmable Programming Language

You must have read our coverage on programming language and its development. If not, I would recommend you to go through it once. There are very interesting articles on Top Programming Languages on GitHub, Highest Paying Programming Languages and many more. This article is about a new programming language called Racket-lang which is gaining a lot of attention of programmers these day.

You’ve certainly heard of JavaScript, Perl, Python, and Ruby. But Racket? Probably not. Just because it’s not the most mainstream programming language doesn’t mean you should discount its capabilities. Racket allows functional programming and other different paradigms that even hard-core programmers have never seen before.

What is Racket-lang:

Racket is a descendant of Lisp, a programming language renowned for its elegance, power, and challenging learning curve. But while Racket retains the functional goodness of Lisp, it was designed with beginning programmers in mind.  It goes beyond Lisp and Scheme with dialects that support objects, types, laziness, and more. Racket enables programmers to link components written in different dialects, and it empowers programmers to create new,project-specific dialects. Racket’s libraries support applications from web servers and databases to GUIs and charts.

A glimpse of Racket-lang:

Getting started with Racket-lang is pretty easy unlike lisp which requires a substantial amount of knowledge before even you write your first hello world program. Below is a small example to get you started with Racket-lang –

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;;;hello world in Racket #lang racket "Hello, World!"

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;;;This program, taken from the Racket website, draws a Sierpinski triangle, nested to depth 8. #lang racket (require 2htdp/image) (let sierpinski ([n 8])   (if (zero? n)     (triangle 2 'solid 'red)     (let ([t (sierpinski (- n 1))])       (freeze (above t (beside t t))))))

IDE for Racket-lang:

Racket-lang has a plethora of tools and among those DrRacket is a Racket’s graphical environment for developing programs. You can get it from here.Other useful tools are –

• Futures Visualizer
• Optimization Coach
• PLaneT: Automatic Package Distribution
• Racklog: Prolog-Style Logic Programming
• RackUnit: Unit Testing
• Redex: Practical Semantics Engineering
• Scribble as Preprocessor
• Slideshow: Figure and Presentation Tools

Learning Racket is easy and the community is very active so you get your doubts clear easily. Also, the documentation of Racket is vast and complete and help you understand every bit of language.

Know more here and find the download link.

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Don’t Like Your Recorded Sound? Science Has The Explanation

Listening myself on an audio or a video is really harsh for me. And each time I’m like, seriously dude, is that guy me!! Then I realized I am not the only one dismayed by what I hear. Others experience the same thing too, with their voice.

There is a scientific explanation as to why we feel our own recorded voice as different. While listening to other people, the vibrations coming from outside hit our eardrums and inner ears which are then converted to recognizable sound by our brain.

But when we hear ourselves speak,  in addition to the above phenomenon, we hear the sound vibrations through our own flesh and bones. This gives the added bass to our sound because the higher frequencies are toned down.

We have heard ourselves for the whole lifetime through our own head. That is the reason why our own audio recording sounds more high pitched and weird. 

The same goes with the way we see ourself. Seeing your image in the mirror for a long time and then, looking at the photograph does quite a trick with your brain too.

But you need not worry because everyone around you has grown accustomed to your voice and it now seems perfectly normal to them.

So do not get fazed from your actual voice. You never know who might just love it.

Did you like this explanation? Tell us in comments.

Source: Fossbyte

Microsoft Reveals the Official Windows 10 ‘Hero’ Wallpaper: What do You Think?

When a company like Microsoft tries to recover from a disaster called “Windows 8”, it is expected to take care of every minute detail involved in the process. So Redmond thought, why not work a bit more on the official Windows 10 wallpaper.

Today, Microsoft announced the official wallpaper of Windows 10 and released a video explaining that this picture isn’t made using Photoshop of other tools- it is a real photographed picture using light, projectors and lasers to create the beautiful effect seen in the video.

The company used a studio in San Francisco to make the logo and utilized camera mapping techniques.

As seen in the image, the wallpaper consists of a Windows logo against a dark background. From the edges of the logo, there’s mist and light beaming out.

The video description on YouTube says: “Blasting lasers, pumping smoke machines, colored filters, and falling crystal dust. Not all desktop images are created equal. Take a look behind the scenes at the making of the iconic Windows 10 image in our collaboration with world-renowned, San Francisco-based design director Bradley G. Munkowitz aka GMUNK.” 

This unique Windows 10 Hero wallpaper is designed by Bradley Munkowitz, production designer and artist known for his work in Tron.

Windows 10 ships from July 29 with free updgrade for Windows 7 and 8 users.

Did you like this wallpaper? Tell us in comments below!

Now Use Facebook Messenger, Without a Facebook Account

Remember the time when Facebook forced you to download its standalone Messenger app and you cursed the world’s biggest social network big time? Well, now Messenger has graduated and is ready to take the next step.

Today Facebook decided that it is now giving its users the option to use sign up for the Messenger without needing a Facebook account. This news comes in the wake of the fact that Facebook has been trying hard to push Messenger forward as a platform.

In a blog post, Facebook said: “With Messenger, we’ve been focused on creating the best messaging experience possible by giving people a fun and easy way to connect and express themselves with friends and contacts. We are starting to roll out a new way for you to sign up for Messenger – without a Facebook account.”

Now you can sign up for the Facebook Messenger chat app just with your first name, last name, and your phone number. This functionality is being launched in the US, Canada, Peru and Venezuela before the rest of the world.

It should be noted that this isn’t some new experiment by Facebook- the world’s most popular social network had tried the same thing on Android in India and few other regions back in 2012, but it got scrapped up due to some reasons.

How Messenger without Facebook account works?

• Now the Messenger will feature a new “Not on Facebook?” button during the sign-up flow.

• Use this button to fill up your details like your phone number, first name, last name and a picture.

• If you are having a Facebook account, then you need not enter these details as it will automatically fetch your details.

This functionality of Messenger will enable it to attract those users who have alienated themselves from Facebook and still want to have an app as universal as Messenger. Also, Facebook has its own underlying interests behind this step. The Messenger has a vast user-base of 700 million users and it is slowing taking steps towards the monetization of Messenger slowly and gradually.

Did you like this step of Facebook? Tell us in the comments below.