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

[David Van Horn]

John Cowan wrote:
> Ben Goetter scripsit:
>> John Cowan wrote:
>>> R4 is very nearly dead; the implementations that only
>>> support R4RS are pretty much unmaintained.
>> Stalin is unrepentently R4RS, and it is still maintained.  Last release 
>> 2 Oct 2006.
> 
> Three years is a long time in Internet time.  And Stalin is manifestly
> a dead end: it does what it does, but it's a nightmare to maintain for
> anyone but the author, especially given that the internal documentation
> consists of "LaHaShem HaAretz U'Mloah" at the beginning and "Tam V'Nishlam
> Shevah L'El Borei Olam" at the end of each source file. :-)
> 
> Still, someone could provide Stalin with a preprocessor that did
> syntax-rules and added support for (probably) everything in R5RS except
> dynamic-wind.  (Multiple values would have to cheat, as is the case in
> chibi-scheme, where values returns a list of values with a unique object
> in the car, and call-with-values merely checks for this.)

This strikes me as an extremely cavalier attitude toward important prior 
art and standards.  I doubt highly that a standard developed with this 
attitude in mind would result in something garnering 90% support.

David