Scheme is a functional programming language that is a dialect of Lisp. It has a minimalist design with a standard specification and many implementations.

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Is LISP still useful in today's world? Which version is most used?

I try to teach myself a new programming language in regular intervals of time. Recently, I've read how Lisp and its dialects are at the complete opposite end of the spectrum from languages like C/C++, ...
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5answers
16k views

Scheme vs Common Lisp: Which characteristics made a difference in your project? [closed]

There are no shortage of vague "Scheme vs Common Lisp" questions on both StackOverflow and on this site, so I want to make this one more focused. The question is for people who have coded in both ...
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10answers
3k views

Why is my first language in University Scheme?

I hear about C, C++, Java every day whenever people starting talking about computer science, but in my first computer science class we are asked to write in Scheme (DrRacket). Why is that? What ...
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3answers
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Applying Denotational Semantics to design of Programs

I've read a bit on denotational semantics (DS) and I'm very intrigued about the process of designing computer programs where types and functions have strong and clear mappings to mathematics. Are ...
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11answers
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Scheme vs Haskell for an Introduction to Functional Programming?

I am comfortable with programming in C and C#, and will explore C++ in the future. I may be interested in exploring functional programming as a different programming paradigm. I am doing this for fun, ...
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7answers
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Is there a language more general than Lisp? [closed]

I've been programming for a long time, and writing in Lisp (well, mostly Scheme) for a little less. My experience in these languages (and other functional languages) has informed my ability to write ...
16
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6answers
1k views

how a pure functional programming language manage without assignment statements?

When reading the famous SICP, I found the authors seem rather reluctant to introduce the assignment statement to Scheme in Chapter 3. I read the text and kind of understand why they feel so. As ...
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3answers
1k views

Is there a canonical tutorial or book on functional programming concepts?

Coming from a procedural/OO programming background, I tend to write Scheme programs in a procedural fashion. I would be intersted in learning Scheme or Lisp in a functional way from the ground up, to ...
13
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5answers
743 views

How useful are Lisp macros?

Common Lisp allows you to write macros that do whatever source transformation you want. Scheme gives you a hygienic pattern-matching system that lets you perform transformations as well. How useful ...
12
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3answers
2k views

On the path to Enlightenment: Scheme, Common Lisp, Clojure? [closed]

A lot of people smarter than me keep writing about when you learn Lisp it makes you a better programmer because you "get it". Maybe all I hear about Lisp(s) changing your life is just a big practical ...
10
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4answers
617 views

What should I learn from Scheme?

I was wondering what unique features I can learn from Scheme that would help me become a better programmer? I have a lot experience in mainstream languages, and I am looking to expand my horizons ...
9
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2answers
738 views

Is IronScheme complete enough or stable enough to be worth learning?

IronScheme is mentioned on Wikipedia as a successor to a failed project called IronLisp, bringing Lisp to CLR and .NET, the way Clojure does for the JVM. Does anyone have experience with this ...
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9answers
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OS choice for functional developing

I'm mainly a .NET developer so I normaly use Windows/VisualStudio (that means: I'm spoiled) but I'm enjoying Haskell and other (mostly functional) languagues in my spare time. Now for Haskell the ...
7
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3answers
752 views

Why do .NET modules separate module file names from namespaces?

In implementations of the Scheme programming language (R6RS standard) I can import a module as follows: (import (abc def xyz)) The system will try to look for a file $DIR/abc/def/xyz.sls where $DIR ...
7
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6answers
670 views

Reading SICP with F#? [closed]

I've been meaning to read the SICP book for a while, and am finally about to get around to it (now that I can read it on Kindle :) I'd like to learn a functional language, and I use C# at work so ...
6
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5answers
472 views

Wrapping my mind around prefix notation?

I'm reading about LISP. I understand how prefix notation works at a certain level, but I was wondering if there are any tricks to making it intuitive.
5
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3answers
524 views

Am I getting Scheme wrong?

Inspired by the numerous posts about the importance of learning Lisp/Scheme I started to learn Scheme two days back, I am using the book "The little Schemer" and have completed half of it. But I ...
5
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1answer
411 views

What implementation of Scheme is good for studying SICP?

I heard about Dr. Scheme but haven't really used it. What is your experience with SICP, what set of scheme tools did you use when learning SICP?
5
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1answer
356 views

What benefits do I get from learning Scheme?

I'm a java programmer and I've decided to learn a bit about theoretical computer science. I don't have a degree in that and a little background would help me a lot since I don't know anything other ...
5
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1answer
211 views

Process arbitrarily large lists without explicit recursion or abstract list functions?

This is one of the bonus questions in my assignment. The specific questions is to see the input list as a set and output all subsets of it in a list. We can only use cons, first, rest, empty?, empty, ...
5
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1answer
148 views

SICP - Why use accumulate with cons when filter already passes back a list

In SICP 2nd Edition section 2.2.3, the authors have the following code: (define (even-fibs n) (accumulate cons nil (filter even? (map fib ...
4
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3answers
257 views

Is Reading the Spec Enough? [closed]

This question is centered around Scheme but really could be applied to any LISP or programming language in general. Background So I recently picked up Scheme again having toyed with it once or twice ...
4
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2answers
177 views

Who first coined the term Higher Order Function and/or First Class Citizen?

I've come to understand that long before Haskell, O'Caml or LISP, higher order functions were an academic research subject and in mathematics, Schönfinkel (in 1967) and Haskell Curry (in 1968) already ...
4
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3answers
1k views

Lisp popularity on the rise. Anyone know why? Seen this first hand?

I recently found this article/table: http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html It shows a big rise in Lisp's popularity. Does anyone know more about this? What applications ...
3
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2answers
296 views

What is a dotted pair's analogy in other Lisp implementations?

What is Scheme's dotted pair construct analogous to in other Lisp implementations? I can make a vector or list quite easily, and understand those in Clojure, even though the syntax is a little ...
3
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3answers
309 views

Can't understand example using continuations

I'm reading the r6rs Scheme report and am confused by the explanation of continuations (I find it to be too dense and lacking of examples for a beginner). What is this code doing and how does it ...
3
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1answer
322 views

Where can I read exemplary Scheme code?

Edi Weitz's libraries are often brought up when people ask for exemplary code in Common Lisp, the kind to read and learn from. Are there any open-source Scheme projects or libraries that you can ...
2
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2answers
351 views

What are examples of Lisp's accomplishments? [closed]

I've more than once heard that sometimes a few individuals come up with great accomplishments from using Lisp. What are those refering to? What are concrete examples of people using Lisp to create ...
2
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3answers
102 views

In Scheme, what is formally a program's state?

I think i've understood more or less what a parsed Scheme program looks like (a binary tree with atomic values on the leaves, if i have understood correctly). Can anybody please define to me, or give ...
2
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2answers
615 views

Scheme Stream Implementation

After working my way through SICP I decided to work though some Project Euler problems using scheme. In this particular problem I am trying to generate an infinite stream of integers however I am ...

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