Overview
Track 1: How to Design Languages
Track 2: Beautiful Racket Workshop
Location
Schedule
Accommodation
Tickets
Housing
Previous Racket Schools
Domain-Specific Languages from Racket
The Racket team has spent over thirty years developing and refining a coherent intellectual tradition for creating domain-specific languages (DSLs). Racket School will introduce you to these tools and the underlying philosophy of language-oriented programming (LOP), an approach to software development through the lenses of DSLs (CACM, Feb 2018).
This year, Racket School is divided into two tracks, using two different pedagogical approaches.
For the first time, Racket School will be immediately followed by RacketCon, the annual Racket conference, on July 13 & 14. All Racket School tickets include admission to RacketCon. We hope you’ll stay for both events!
Track 1: How to Design Languages
A five-day class that will run July 8–12 (Monday–Friday).
This track will be taught by Matthias Felleisen, Robby Findler, Matthew Flatt, Jay McCarthy, and Jesse Tov.
This track will cover:
- the spectrum of DSLs within a programming language;
- the Racket tools for creating DSLs;
- the process of creating these various DSLs with Racket;
- a meta-DSL for creating typed embedded DSLs;
- the research challenges in language-oriented programming.
This track is good for:
- academic researchers who wish to understand LOP research,
- professionals who wish to learn in depth how to rapidly build DSLs,
- students who wish to explore a potential area of research for a PhD,
- faculty at all levels who wish to explore an approach to teaching LOP.
Prerequisites:
- Course-based or self-directed Racket programming experience beyond How to Design Programs and Realm of Racket is needed.
Still don’t know which track is right for you? Click here for help.
Track 2: Beautiful Racket Workshop
A three-day class that will run July 10–12 (Wednesday–Friday).
This track will be taught by Matthew Butterick, author of Beautiful Racket and Pollen.
This track will cover:
- How to make programming languages in Racket, starting from the techniques described in Beautiful Racket.
- Racket’s tools for language-oriented programming, including the macro system, libraries, and the DrRacket IDE.
This track is good for:
- Those new to language-oriented programming generally or Racket in particular.
- Those who have already worked through Beautiful Racket and want more practice.
- Working programmers looking for practical techniques.
- Academic researchers outside of computer science.
Prerequisites:
- Some programming experience: you’ve moved beyond beginner level in at least one modern programming language.
- No Racket experience required.
- No computer-science training required.
Still don’t know which track is right for you? Click here for help.
Location
Racket School 2019 happpens at the University of Utah. The University is located in lovely Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
Utah is home to several US National Parks, Monuments, and Sites, the Sundance Film Festival, the Bonneville Salt Flats, and much more. Learn more here, here, or here.
The summer school will be held at the Warnock Engineering Building (WEB). To get to campus, one option is TRAX light rail to either the Medical Center, Fort Douglas, or Stadium stop. Walk to WEB from there, or a free campus shuttle stops at TRAX stations and near WEB.
Schedule
Each teaching day will run roughly 9am to 5pm, divided into four sections of about 75 min each. Some sections will be organized as traditional lectures. In lab sessions, the summer school participants will practice the lecture material with hands-on exercises; teaching assistants will be on hand to assist. Participants will also have time to consult with the faculty and teaching assistants on their own language projects.
See the detailed HtDL schedule here.
Accommodation
We arranged for subsidized lodging in dorms at the University of Utah, but the deadline for reserving dorm lodging has now passed.
Tickets
$499 patron
$149 academic (students can apply for financial aid)
$699 patron
$249 academic (students can apply for financial aid)
Base tickets are available to all.
Patron tickets cover our full cost of offering these events, plus a little extra to help support Racket development at large. Racket is part of the Software Freedom Conservancy.
Academic tickets are available to participants from academic institutions that need a subsidy. Tuition and travel reimbursement available for qualifying students. Click here to apply.
Eventbrite fees are added during checkout.
Housing
Subsidized housing is available in the University of Utah campus dorms. The cost is $40/night. Register here.