v8.18 blog post and announcement files

announcements/v8.18.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+
+Racket v8.18
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+- The new `drracket-core` package provides a version of drracket with
+  a smaller set of dependencies.
+- Typed Racket has support for treelists.
+- The package manager computes checksums for packages when required,
+  allowing the use and automatic upgrade of packages without them.
+- The `bitwise-first-bit-set` function returns the smallest bit that
+  is set in the twos-complement representation of the given number.
+- The updated `dynamic-require` function makes it easier to use syntax
+  bindings by allowing a syntax-thunk (or 'eval) to be used for them.
+- The `error-module-path->string-handler` parameter allows the
+  customization of the display of module-paths in error messages.
+- Precision of certain numeric functions (`sin`, `cos`, and others) is
+  improved on Windows platforms by using the MSVCRT/UCRT libraries.
+- The `string-append` function has improved performance and reduced
+  memory use for long lists of strings in the Racket CS
+  implementation. Differences are clearly noticeable for lists of
+  length 1 million.
+- TCP ports use `SO_KEEPALIVE`, instructing the kernel to send
+  periodic messages while waiting for data to check whether the
+  connection is still responsive.
+- Racket code using a terminal in Windows can receive mouse events as
+  virtual terminal characters after using SetConsoleMode. (This is
+  also already possible on macOS and Linux.) See the tui-term package
+  for related example code.
+- The `#:replace-malformed-surrogate?` keyword can be used to specify
+  a replacement for malformed unicode surrogates in JSON input
+- The http-client module no longer sends "Content-Length: 0" for
+  requests without a body.
+- The demodularizer (`compiler/demod`) can prune more unused
+  assignments
+- Several judgment rendering forms in Redex are replaced by functions,
+  allowing more convenient abstraction.
+- When a distribution includes no teaching languages, DrRacket’s
+  language-dialog configuration moves into the preferences dialog and
+  the “Language” menu disappears.
+- The math library has better support for block-diagonal matrices,
+  including both Racket and Typed Racket.
+- The math library contains improved implementations of acos and
+  matrix-(cos-)angle.
+- The stepper again works for `big-bang` programs.
+- There are many other repairs and documentation improvements!
+
+The following people contributed to this release:
+
+Alexander Shopov, Andrei Dorian Duma, Bert De Ketelaere, Bob Burger,
+Bogdan Popa, Bogdana Vereha, Cameron Moy, Chung-chieh Shan, Cutie
+Deng, D. Ben Knoble, Dario Hamidi, Dominik Pantůček, Gustavo
+Massaccesi, halfminami, Jacqueline Firth, Jason Hemann, Jens Axel
+Søgaard, Joel Dueck, John Clements, Jordan Harman, Marc
+Nieper-Wißkirchen, Matthew Flatt, Matthias Felleisen, Mike Sperber,
+Noah Ma, owaddell-ib, Philippe Meunier, Robby Findler, Ryan
+Culpepper, Ryan Ficklin, Sam Phillips, Sam Tobin-Hochstadt, Shu-Hung
+You, sogaiu, Sorawee Porncharoenwase, Stephen De Gabrielle, Vincent
+Lee, and Wing Hei Chan.
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------

blog/_src/posts/2025-08-20-racket-v8-18.md

@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+    Title: Racket v8.18
+    Date: 2025-08-20T13:28:24
+    Tags: DRAFT
+
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+We are pleased to announce Racket v8.18 is now available from [https://download.racket-lang.org/](https://download.racket-lang.org).
+
+## As of this release:
+
+- The new [`drracket-core`](https://github.com/racket/drracket/commit/ae16d6bc6e00a9498313cff035537ac98ef71194) package provides a version of drracket with a smaller set of dependencies.
+- Typed Racket has support for [treelists](https://docs.racket-lang.org/reference/treelist.html).
+- The package manager computes [checksums](https://docs.racket-lang.org/pkg/Package_Concepts.html) for packages when required, allowing the use and automatic upgrade of packages without them.
+- The [`bitwise-first-bit-set`](https://docs.racket-lang.org/reference/generic-numbers.html#%28def._%28%28quote._~23~25kernel%29._bitwise-first-bit-set%29%29) function returns the smallest bit that is set in the twos-complement representation of the given number.
+- The updated [`dynamic-require`](https://docs.racket-lang.org/reference/Module_Names_and_Loading.html#%28def._%28%28quote._~23~25kernel%29._dynamic-require%29%29) function makes it easier to use syntax bindings by allowing a syntax-thunk (or 'eval) to be used for them.
+- The [`error-module-path->string-handler`](https://docs.racket-lang.org/reference/exns.html#%28def._%28%28quote._~23~25kernel%29._error-module-path-~3estring-handler%29%29) parameter allows the customization of the display of module-paths in error messages.
+- Precision of certain [numeric functions](https://docs.racket-lang.org/reference/generic-numbers.html) (`sin`, `cos`, and others) is improved on Windows platforms by using the MSVCRT/UCRT libraries.
+- The [`string-append`](https://docs.racket-lang.org/reference/strings.html#%28def._%28%28quote._~23~25kernel%29._string-append%29%29) function has improved performance and reduced memory use for long lists of strings in the Racket CS implementation. Differences are clearly noticeable for lists of length 1 million.
+- [TCP ports](https://docs.racket-lang.org/reference/tcp.html) use `SO_KEEPALIVE`, instructing the kernel to send periodic messages while waiting for data to check whether the connection is still responsive.
+- Racket code using a terminal in Windows can receive mouse events as virtual terminal characters after using SetConsoleMode. (This is also already possible on macOS and Linux.) See the [tui-term](https://docs.racket-lang.org/tui-term/index.html) package for related example code.
+- The [`#:replace-malformed-surrogate?`](https://docs.racket-lang.org/json/index.html#%28part._.Parsing_.J.S.O.N_.Text_into_.J.S-.Expressions%29) keyword can be used to specify a replacement for malformed unicode surrogates in JSON input
+- The [http-client](https://docs.racket-lang.org/http-client/index.html) module no longer sends "Content-Length: 0" for requests without a body.
+- The [demodularizer](https://docs.racket-lang.org/raco/demod.html) (`compiler/demod`) can prune more unused assignments
+- Several judgment rendering forms in [Redex](https://docs.racket-lang.org/redex/index.html) are replaced by functions, allowing more convenient abstraction.
+- When a distribution includes no teaching languages, DrRacket’s language-dialog configuration moves into the preferences dialog and the “Language” menu disappears.
+- The [math library](https://docs.racket-lang.org/math/index.html) has better support for block-diagonal matrices, including both Racket and Typed Racket.
+- The [math library](https://docs.racket-lang.org/math/index.html) contains improved implementations of acos and matrix-(cos-)angle.
+- The [stepper](https://docs.racket-lang.org/stepper/index.html) again works for [`big-bang`](https://docs.racket-lang.org/teachpack/2htdpuniverse.html#(part._world._interactive)) programs.
+- There are many other repairs and documentation improvements!
+
+## Thank you
+
+The following people contributed to this release:
+
+Alexander Shopov, Andrei Dorian Duma, Bert De Ketelaere, Bob Burger,
+Bogdan Popa, Bogdana Vereha, Cameron Moy, Chung-chieh Shan, Cutie
+Deng, D. Ben Knoble, Dario Hamidi, Dominik Pantůček, Gustavo
+Massaccesi, halfminami, Jacqueline Firth, Jason Hemann, Jens Axel
+Søgaard, Joel Dueck, John Clements, Jordan Harman, Marc
+Nieper-Wißkirchen, Matthew Flatt, Matthias Felleisen, Mike Sperber,
+Noah Ma, owaddell-ib, Philippe Meunier, Robby Findler, Ryan
+Culpepper, Ryan Ficklin, Sam Phillips, Sam Tobin-Hochstadt, Shu-Hung
+You, sogaiu, Sorawee Porncharoenwase, Stephen De Gabrielle, Vincent
+Lee, and Wing Hei Chan.
+
+**Racket** is a community developed open source project and we welcome new contributors. See [racket/README.md](https://github.com/racket/racket/blob/master/README.md#contributing)
+to learn how you can be a part of this amazing project.
+
+## Feedback Welcome
+
+Questions and discussion welcome at the Racket community on [Discourse](https://racket.discourse.group/invites/VxkBcXY7yL) or
+[Discord](https://discord.gg/6Zq8sH5).
+
+## Please share
+
+If you can  - please help get the word out to users and platform specific repo packagers
+```
+Racket - the Language-Oriented Programming Language - version 8.18 is now available from https://download.racket-lang.org
+
+See https://blog.racket-lang.org/2025/08/racket-v8-18.html for the release announcement and highlights.
+```