[r6rs-discuss] Proposed features for small Scheme, part 1: a stake in the ground

[Grant Rettke]

On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 1:52 AM, John Cowan<cowan at ccil.org> wrote:
> David Van Horn scripsit:
>> Essential Scheme is the minimal subset of the language expected to be
>> supported by any Scheme system.  It represents the fundamental and
>> simple core of the language.  It is lightweight at the semantic and
>> implementation level.  It is useful for research, prototyping,
>> language experimentation, and understanding existing teaching
>> materials.  Its specification is comparable in size to research paper
>> accounts of Scheme (i.e. much smaller than even R3RS).
>
> 84 bound symbols.  My question is, why do we need a standard as tiny as
> this, when tiny R5RS-compliant systems that are perfectly practicable
> for the purposes mentioned above, like chibi-scheme, already exist?

Don't people want a minimalistic "small language"?

You need this if you want to see the 2.5-specification model for R7RS of:

1. Core language features: lambda, define, let
2. Base language
    - Features: letrec, let*, begin, syntax-rules
    - Libraries: records and so on