Hey everyone, I want to start using Scheme and I have two questions. First, would you recommend using an interpreter or a compiler for Scheme and why? Second, which interpreter or compiler for Scheme would you recommend and why? Thanks!
+5
A:
For a beginner, I would highly recommend Dr. Scheme, since it gives you a really nice environment to work in, supports many dialects of Scheme, and gives very good failure and debugging information. I believe most implementations of Scheme are interpreters, although it is possible that there is a compiler out there.
If you are a commandline junkie like me, an alternative you might consider is mzscheme, which is essentially the same thing as Dr. Scheme, but without the graphical environment and a commandline interface.
Michael Aaron Safyan
2010-03-26 06:35:36
Dr. Scheme is one of the most complete interpreters I have used. Very useful for beginners who get stuck at the command line and cannot translate the cryptic error messages into where the code is wrong.
ecounysis
2010-03-26 06:41:59
Actually there more big-name Scheme compilers than interpreters: ikarus, chez (the non-free version), gambit, chicken, bigloo. In fact mzscheme/DrScheme is JITted in current versions. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Scheme_compilers
Nathan Sanders
2010-03-26 13:54:20
I am a command-line junkie too, I have been using Dr. Scheme a bit, but I will give mzscheme a try too. I've also been using gambit-c a little too, any thoughts on that?
Silmaril89
2010-03-26 15:47:21
+4
A:
I'd recommend not being concerned about whether it's implemented as a compiler, interpreter, or combination thereof -- especially to start with, the quality of help files (for one example) will matter far more than exactly how it's implemented.
As far as which one, PLT Scheme is what I use (by far) the most often.
Jerry Coffin
2010-03-26 06:39:47
+3
A:
I know you already accepted the answer, but for future visitors to this question, I recommend Chicken Scheme. It tends to produce much smaller executables than mzscheme does. Take the following hello world application, for instance:
(define (say-hello name)
(print (string-append "Hello, " name))
(newline))
(say-hello "Earthling")
Compiled with mzc --exec mztest hello.scm: 3.3M
Compiled with csc hello.scm -o ctest: 16k
And if you're after library support, Chicken provides Eggs Unlimited, which is like PlaneT for mzscheme (or gems for ruby).
Shaun
2010-03-27 15:59:14
Chicken owns. I actually get to use it for real work, too. And don't forget about Gambit-C, either.
Jyaan
2010-10-22 05:42:35