Scheme
The whole early MIT culture reflected in the MIT Scheme
.
To do everything just right
- Strong typing (type-tagged values)
- Just a few special forms (
lambda
,define
,cond
,let
) - Numeric tower (proper, “safe” math)
- The List structure everywhere (biology-inspired uniformity)
- Partial application can be implemented as a function
- Proper macros (no accidental capturing of vars)
- R5RS was the peak
- OOP features were just a DSL (a library).
- MIT Scheme is still alive and well. Serious, state-of-the-art engineering.
Chez Scheme is even better technologically
Records and Modules were notably missing from the standard.
Nowadays
Racket
is the state-of-the-art system.