[r6rs-discuss] Re: R6RS size...

[Jeff Read]

Dan,

On 9/20/06, Dan Muresan <dan-r6rs at omnigia.com> wrote:

> My main concern is that I am often using "niche" Schemes, in addition to
> the "big players": for example a Scheme-over-Javascript for web
> applications, a Scheme-over-Ocaml to script scientific applications, and
> some others.

Don't forget that embedded space!

> With a big standard, niche Schemes might not cross the bridge. For
> example, syntax-rules is already hard to implement -- syntax case looks a
> lot harder. Then, once programmers start using the advanced features of
> R6RS, the community will fragment. It will become hard to port packages to
> niche Schemes.

The inclusion of SYNTAX-CASE into the Scheme standard is imho one of
the great faux pas of R6RS development, as it currently stands.

Syntactic closures, as described by Bawden and Rees, are much simpler
conceptually and less cumbersome to use than SYNTAX-CASE.

--Jeff