The second draft of R6RS, version 5.92, is now available at www.r6rs.org. (For more general information about Scheme standards, see the Standards page at schemers.org.)
This version of R6RS incorporates the responses to the formal comments that were submitted prior to Nov 15th, 2006. A few of the changes are highlighted below (not intended to be comprehensive):
- The report has been split into two separate documents: one for the base language, and one for the standard libraries . (A third document is currently planned, to include certain non-normative appendices.)
- The I/O system has been significantly revised.
- A number of features have been dropped from the report, including the inexact arithmetic library and the declarations feature.
- The report now includes a formal operational semantics, developed by Robby Findler and Jacob Matthews, building on their semantics for R5RS.
- "Top-level programs" replace scripts in the base language, eliminating certain OS-specificities, with a specification for scripts to be added in a non-normative appendix.
The current six-month public comment period is still ongoing, and will continue until March 15, 2007. The schedule subsequent to that date can be found here.
The editors encourage comments on the report, either informally on the address@hidden mailing list, or via the formal comment process.
--Mitch Wand
[Thanks to Anton van Straaten for this excellent summary!]