Scheme
Lisp · 1975Actively developedA small Lisp tradition with lexical scope, tail calls and hygienic macros.
Functional
Links
- Homepage
- https://www.scheme.org/
- Reference / standard
- https://standards.scheme.org/
- Wikipedia (English)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheme_(programming_language)
Tracked release
- Version
- R7RS-small
- Artifact
- Language report
- Published
- 2013
- Source checked
- 2026-10-22
Use & ecosystem
- Suited for
- CLI tools / automation, Symbolic / logic programming
- Family / tradition
- Functional / ML / lazy, Lisp
- Maturity
- Stable niche
- Ecosystem breadth
- Focused
A stable standardized core and maintained implementations justify Stable niche. Multiple implementations do not constitute one uniformly portable broad library ecosystem.
Industry & practical use
Language research, education, symbolic programming and embedded scripting are important uses. Choose an implementation according to actual deployment and library requirements.
Compilers, libraries & tooling
Chez, CHICKEN, Gambit and other implementations provide different compilation and runtime models. R6RS and R7RS libraries and extensions are not automatically interchangeable.
Platforms & deployment
- General toolchains
- Linux, Windows, macOS
- Specialized tooling
- None catalogued
- Native cross-compilation
- Restricted / involved
Major implementations support desktop/server systems, but there is no single universal Scheme target matrix.
Some implementations support cross-builds or C output. Native runtime, linker and extension requirements differ by implementation.
Project health & support
Standardization and independent implementation communities provide continuity. Support must be assessed at implementation and library level.
Use, ecosystem & platform assessment reviewed 2026-10-22 · Sources below
History & origin
Guy Steele and Gerald Sussman developed Scheme at MIT in 1975. Successive reports define a core language, while implementations differ substantially in libraries, runtime behavior and extensions.
- Creators
- Guy L. Steele Jr., Gerald Jay Sussman, MIT
- Origin
- 1975 — Initial MIT language report.
Influences & descendants
Influenced by
Influenced in this catalogue
Language features
- Typing
- Dynamic
- Execution
- AOT, JIT, Interpreted
- Block structure
- Explicit delimiters
- Semicolons
- Not statement separators
- Lexical closures
- Yes
- Namespaced modules
- Yes
- Pattern matching
- Partial
- Macro system
- Syntactic macros
Implementation notes
- The feature profile uses R7RS-small libraries and core facilities. Pattern matching usually comes from libraries or implementation extensions. Semicolons introduce comments.
Sources & references
- Project overview
- https://www.scheme.org/
- Language / implementation reference
- https://standards.scheme.org/
Use, ecosystem & platform sources
- Project overview
- https://www.scheme.org/
- Language / implementation reference
- https://standards.scheme.org/
See the classification definitions for implementation-dependent features. Influence links cover the entries documented here.