Re: Status of XScheme

[HANCHE%NORUNIT.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU]

Date: 25 September 1988, 21:05:26 ECT
From: Harald Hanche-Olsen       +47-7-593525         HANCHE   at NORUNIT
To:   scheme@mc.lcs.mit.edu

Recently, Paul Wilson <wilson@UICBERT.EECS.UIC.EDU> asked the following
question:

> A while back I heard something about Dave Betz doing a Scheme.
> They called it XScheme 0.3.  Does anybody know what the status
> of this project is, or any details about the actual code?
> (Is it portable? What machines does it run on?, etc.)

The code is written in reasonably portable C.  I know for sure it runs
on IBM PClones, Macs, and Amigas.  The code is posted and occasionally
being discussed on BIX (Byte Information eXchange).  The latest version
(as far as I know) is *very* preliminary, my copy is version 0.07.  A
handful of bugs and lack of reasonable error messages makes it rather
unsuitable for real work at the moment, but a new and improved version
is rumoured to be in the works (though David Betz has been curiously
silent about it lately).

XScheme is based on a bytecode compiler.  Apart from that, its
distinguishing feature is its object oriented extensions, similar to
those of XLisp.

- Harald Hanche-Olsen       Division of Mathematical Sciences
  hanche@norunit.bitnet     The Norwegian Institute of Technology