[plt-scheme] MIT Scheme+ doesn't work with Dr Scheme

On Fri, 18 Oct 2002, Derek Rayside wrote:

>   For list-related administrative tasks:
>   http://list.cs.brown.edu/mailman/listinfo/plt-scheme
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I'm currently a student in MIT 6.821, which is a graduate course on 
> programming languages.  We do our practical exercises with "Scheme+", 
> which is basically some syntactic sugars for pattern matching.  The
> Scheme source code for Scheme+ is available from:
> 
> 	ftp://psrg.lcs.mit.edu/pub/6.821/fall-02/code/scheme+/
> 
> I've been somewhat underwhelmed by the tool support in MIT Scheme,

You meant "lack of it" ;-)


> so I
> thought I'd take a look at Dr Scheme.  Unfortunately for me, Dr Scheme
> seems to choke on the source code for Scheme+.  When I try to execute
> scheme+.scm in Dr Scheme, it dies on the first line:
> 
> 	(declare (usual-integrations))
> 	"reference to undefined identifier: declare"
> 
> The Dr Scheme syntax check makes it to the eighth line of code:
> 
> 	(macro (pattern . body)
> 	application: bad syntax (illegal use of `.') in: (pattern . body)
> 
> 
> Dr Scheme looks like it would be very helpful to me, and I'd really like 
> to try it out.  Any help on getting "scheme+.scm" to work would be greatly 
> appreciated, as I need to run this file to do my problem sets.

Unfortunately, it looks like quite a lot of work.  They use many
constructs specific to MIT Scheme, like access, make-environment,
->pathname etc. in code, so just changing syntax of macros would not
suffice.  Some macros are probably non-hygienic, so file has to be cut in 
pieces or they have to be converted to hygienic.

Maybe some could try to make "mitscheme" language in new module
system (if it is possible at all)?

Zbyszek Jurkiewicz