## Scheme in a nutshell

  - Scheme is a dialect of the
    [Lisp](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_\(programming_language\))
    programming language developed in the 70s, that inherently supports
    *[functional
    programming](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_programming)*
    but is easily
    *[multi-paradigm](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-paradigm)*.

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  - Scheme is one of the two major Lisp dialects used for
    general-purpose programming, the other one being [Common
    Lisp](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Lisp).

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  - Scheme provides very few primitives defined in its core (known as
    the "RnRS standard" where "n" is an integer) as the rest is defined
    in extensions or libraries.

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  - Scheme can be used for any kind of software development and can be
    learned in a single day thanks to its minimalist yet powerful
    design.

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  - *[High
    order](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher-order_programming)*
    programming and
    *[macros](http://people.csail.mit.edu/gregs/info-dylan-archive-html-2002/msg00070.html)*
    allow the developers using Scheme to write efficient and easily
    maintainable code, hence Scheme's label as the programming language
    of choice for many industries as well as academics.

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  - Among programming languages, Scheme is quite unique about natively
    supporting
    [continuations](http://community.schemewiki.org/?call-with-current-continuation),
    a very powerful language construct using which for instance
    exception handling,
    [coroutines](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coroutine), and
    [weblocks](http://common-lisp.net/project/cl-weblocks/) behaviour
    can be implemented.

Scheme is a solid way to state of the art software development.

## Literature

  - [Structure and Interpretation of Computer
    Programs](http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/) is a Computer Science book
    that uses Scheme. You find the book on its web site, and its videos
    on
    [YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=SICP+&search_type=&aq=f)
    and on a
    [homepage](http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lectures/).

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  - [An Introduction to Scheme and its
    Implementation](http://www.federated.com/~jim/schintro-v14/schintro_toc.html)
    ([alternative
    link](ftp://ftp.cs.utexas.edu/pub/garbage/cs345/schintro-v14/schintro_toc.html))
    is a practical hands-on guide to Scheme, for people new to software
    development, as well as for people with a background in general
    programming languges such as C, C++, Java, Pascal, PHP, etc.

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  - [How to Design Programs](http://www.htdp.org/)

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  - [The Scheme Programming Language](http://www.scheme.com/tspl3/)

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  - The Revised5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
    [here](http://schemers.org/Documents/Standards/R5RS/) and more in
    particular
    [here](http://schemers.org/Documents/Standards/R5RS/HTML/).

## Web sites

  - [www.schemers.org](http://www.schemers.org)

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  - [community.schemewiki.org](http://community.schemewiki.org/)

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  - [Scheme (programming language) on
    Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheme_\(programming_language\))

## Forums and Chat

  - [comp.lang.scheme on
    Usenet](http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.scheme)

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  - The \#gambit and \#scheme channels on [Freenode
    IRC](http://www.mibbit.com)

## Other resources

  - [The 90 minutes Scheme to C
    compiler](http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~boucherd/mslug/meetings/20041020/minutes-en.html)
  - [The adventures of a Pythonista in
    Schemeland](http://www.artima.com/weblogs/index.jsp?blogger=micheles)

[Category: Language](Category:%20Language.md)