Interfaces in Racket

Interfaces are named collections of method signatures in many programming languages. In Racket, we can achieve similar functionality using contracts and structs.

#lang racket

(require math)

; Here's a basic interface for geometric shapes.
(define geometry/c
  (contract?
   (object-contract
    [area (-> number?)]
    [perim (-> number?)])))

; For our example we'll implement this interface on
; rect and circle types.
(struct rect (width height))
(struct circle (radius))

; To implement an interface in Racket, we define methods
; that satisfy the contract. Here we implement geometry/c on rects.
(define (rect-area r)
  (* (rect-width r) (rect-height r)))

(define (rect-perim r)
  (+ (* 2 (rect-width r)) (* 2 (rect-height r))))

; The implementation for circles.
(define (circle-area c)
  (* pi (sqr (circle-radius c))))

(define (circle-perim c)
  (* 2 pi (circle-radius c)))

; If a variable satisfies a contract, then we can call
; methods that are in the named interface. Here's a
; generic measure function taking advantage of this
; to work on any geometry.
(define (measure g)
  (printf "~a\n" g)
  (printf "~a\n" ((object-ref g 'area)))
  (printf "~a\n" ((object-ref g 'perim))))

(define (main)
  (define r (rect 3 4))
  (define c (circle 5))

  ; The circle and rect struct types both
  ; implement the geometry/c contract so we can use
  ; instances of these structs as arguments to measure.
  (measure (object
            [area (lambda () (rect-area r))]
            [perim (lambda () (rect-perim r))]))
  (measure (object
            [area (lambda () (circle-area c))]
            [perim (lambda () (circle-perim c))])))

(main)

To run the program, save it in a file (e.g., interfaces.rkt) and use the racket command:

$ racket interfaces.rkt
#<object:area perim>
12
14
#<object:area perim>
78.53981633974483
31.41592653589793

In this Racket implementation:

  1. We define a contract geometry/c that specifies the required methods for geometric shapes.
  2. We create structs for rect and circle.
  3. We implement the methods for each shape separately.
  4. The measure function takes an object that satisfies the geometry/c contract.
  5. In the main function, we create instances of rect and circle, and pass them to measure wrapped in objects that implement the required methods.

This approach in Racket provides similar functionality to interfaces in other languages, allowing for polymorphic behavior based on shared method signatures.