Re: [Chicken-hackers] R6RS

[John Cowan]

Thomas Bushnell BSG scripsit:

> So the extraordinary compiler Stalin is sliding into obscurity, because
> it remains stuck at r4rs, with nobody having done anything to bring it
> up-to-date.

It's obscure because it's extraordinarily slow and the source code is
very difficult to understand or extend.  It's generally considered to
be mostly a dead end in Scheme implementations.

However, the main difference between R4RS and R5RS is the syntax-rules
macro language, and it's straightforward to front-end Stalin with a
stand-alone expander such as alexpander or riaxpander.  R4RS and Stalin
don't do multiple values, but they are rarely essential.

> Chicken Scheme can be talked into being r5rs, which is great, though
> it's not obvious sometimes what needs to be done.

(use numbers) is pretty much all you need.  The page
http://chicken.wiki.br/man/4/Deviations%20from%20the%20standard gives
you all the nitty-gritty details, most of which are implementation
restrictions.

> But r6rs has been out a while.  I think we should create a "punchlist"
> of to-do items, with the goal being to get r6rs compliance in the
> not-too-distant future.  With the version 4 macro system in place, this
> shouldn't be too far off.  

Someone other than Felix would have to do the implementation work to layer
R6RS over Chicken as a set of eggs.

-- 
The experiences of the past show                John Cowan
that there has always been a discrepancy        address@hidden
between plans and performance.                  http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
        --Emperor Hirohito, August 1945