Re: [Chicken-users] Re: Debian slander?

[John Cowan]

Ivan Raikov scripsit:

>   Isn't it redundant to say "The compiler ... supports tail
> recursion"? After all, if the compiler didn't support tail recursion,
> it wouldn't be a Scheme compiler. 

Unfortunately no.  It is quite common for Scheme compilers not to be fully
tail recursive.  For example, Kawa and Stalin are only tail recursive on
self calls, and will run out of stack when general tail recursion is used.
If it comes to that, first-class continuations are as required as tail 
recursion,
and few compilers to C (or Java) other than Chicken get that 100% right.

> I think the two strongest points of Chicken are
> the FFI and the availability of hundreds of eggs. 

I agree that those are very strong points.  However, I think the ability
to get the whole semantics correct and still generate fast C is every bit
as important.

>         Chicken Scheme includes an R5RS-conformant compiler and

Saying that Chicken is R5RS-compliant is simply false advertising.
It isn't.  There is a whole section in the manual on deviations from
the standard.  It's "good enough" compliant.

Here's my next proposal, slightly rearranged and incorporating some of
your improvements:

Chicken Scheme combines an optimising compiler with a reasonably fast
interpreter.  It supports almost all of R5RS and the important SRFIs.
The compiler generates portable C code and supports tail recursion,
first-class continuations, and lightweight threads, and the interface
to and from C code is flexible, efficient, and easy to use.  The active
and helpful Chicken community fixes bugs, provides support, and has
contributed hundreds of Chicken libraries that make the programmer's
task easier.  The interpreter allows interactive use, fast prototyping,
debugging, and scripting.  Extensive documentation is supplied.

-- 
Evolutionary psychology is the theory           John Cowan
that men are nothing but horn-dogs,             http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
and that women only want them for their money.  address@hidden
        --Susan McCarthy (adapted)