Version: 4.1

Guide: PLT Scheme

This guide is intended for programmers who are new to Scheme, new to PLT Scheme, or new to some part of PLT Scheme. It assumes programming experience, so if you are new to programming, consider instead reading How to Design Programs. If you want a brief introduction to PLT Scheme, start with Quick: An Introduction to PLT Scheme with Pictures.

Chapter 2 provides a brief introduction to Scheme. From Chapter 3 on, this guide dives into details – covering much of the PLT Scheme toolbox, but leaving precise details to Reference: PLT Scheme and other reference manuals.

    1 Welcome to PLT Scheme

      1.1 Interacting with Scheme

      1.2 Definitions and Interactions

      1.3 Creating Executables

      1.4 A Note to Readers with Scheme/Lisp Experience

    2 Scheme Essentials

      2.1 Simple Values

      2.2 Simple Definitions and Expressions

        2.2.1 Definitions

        2.2.2 An Aside on Indenting Code

        2.2.3 Identifiers

        2.2.4 Function Calls (Procedure Applications)

        2.2.5 Conditionals with if, and, or, and cond

        2.2.6 Function Calls, Again

        2.2.7 Anonymous Functions with lambda

        2.2.8 Local Binding with define, let, and let*

      2.3 Lists, Iteration, and Recursion

        2.3.1 Predefined List Loops

        2.3.2 List Iteration from Scratch

        2.3.3 Tail Recursion

        2.3.4 Recursion versus Iteration

      2.4 Pairs, Lists, and Scheme Syntax

        2.4.1 Quoting Pairs and Symbols with quote

        2.4.2 Abbreviating quote with

        2.4.3 Lists and Scheme Syntax

    3 Built-In Datatypes

      3.1 Booleans

      3.2 Numbers

      3.3 Characters

      3.4 Strings (Unicode)

      3.5 Bytes and Byte Strings

      3.6 Symbols

      3.7 Keywords

      3.8 Pairs and Lists

      3.9 Vectors

      3.10 Hash Tables

      3.11 Boxes

      3.12 Void and Undefined

    4 Expressions and Definitions

      4.1 Notation

      4.2 Identifiers and Binding

      4.3 Function Calls (Procedure Applications)

        4.3.1 Evaluation Order and Arity

        4.3.2 Keyword Arguments

        4.3.3 The apply Function

      4.4 Functions (Procedures): lambda

        4.4.1 Declaring a Rest Argument

        4.4.2 Declaring Optional Arguments

        4.4.3 Declaring Keyword Arguments

        4.4.4 Arity-Sensitive Functions: case-lambda

      4.5 Definitions: define

        4.5.1 Function Shorthand

        4.5.2 Curried Function Shorthand

        4.5.3 Multiple Values and define-values

        4.5.4 Internal Definitions

      4.6 Local Binding

        4.6.1 Parallel Binding: let

        4.6.2 Sequential Binding: let*

        4.6.3 Recursive Binding: letrec

        4.6.4 Named let

        4.6.5 Multiple Values: let-values, let*-values, letrec-values

      4.7 Conditionals

        4.7.1 Simple Branching: if

        4.7.2 Combining Tests: and and or

        4.7.3 Chaining Tests: cond

      4.8 Sequencing

        4.8.1 Effects Before: begin

        4.8.2 Effects After: begin0

        4.8.3 Effects If...: when and unless

      4.9 Assignment: set!

        4.9.1 Guidelines for Using Assignment

        4.9.2 Multiple Values: set!-values

      4.10 Quoting: quote and

      4.11 Quasiquoting: quasiquote and `

      4.12 Simple Dispatch: case

    5 Programmer-Defined Datatypes

      5.1 Simple Structure Types: define-struct

      5.2 Copying and Update

      5.3 Structure Subtypes

      5.4 Opaque versus Transparent Stucture Types

      5.5 Structure Type Generativity

      5.6 Prefab Stucture Types

      5.7 More Structure Type Options

    6 Modules

      6.1 Module Basics

      6.2 Module Syntax

        6.2.1 The module Form

        6.2.2 The #lang Shorthand

      6.3 Module Paths

      6.4 Imports: require

      6.5 Exports: provide

      6.6 Assignment and Redefinition

    7 Contracts

      7.1 Contracts and Boundaries

        7.1.1 A First Contract Violation

        7.1.2 A Subtle Contract Violation

        7.1.3 Imposing Obligations on a Module’s Clients

      7.2 Simple Contracts on Functions

        7.2.1 Restricting the Arguments of a Function

        7.2.2 Arrows

        7.2.3 Infix Contract Notation

        7.2.4 Rolling Your Own Contracts for Function Arguments

        7.2.5 The and/c, or/c, and listof Contract Combinators

        7.2.6 Restricting the Range of a Function

        7.2.7 The Difference Between any and any/c

      7.3 Contracts on Functions in General

        7.3.1 Contract Error Messages that Contain “???”

        7.3.2 Optional Arguments

        7.3.3 Rest Arguments

        7.3.4 Keyword Arguments

        7.3.5 Optional Keyword Arguments

        7.3.6 When a Function’s Result Depends on its Arguments

        7.3.7 When Contract Arguments Depend on Each Other

        7.3.8 Ensuring that a Function Properly Modifies State

        7.3.9 Contracts for case-lambda

        7.3.10 Multiple Result Values

        7.3.11 Procedures of Some Fixed, but Statically Unknown Arity

      7.4 Contracts on Structures

        7.4.1 Promising Something About a Specific Structure

        7.4.2 Promising Something About a Specific Vector

        7.4.3 Ensuring that All Structs are Well-Formed

        7.4.4 Checking Properties of Data Structures

      7.5 Examples

        7.5.1 A Customer Manager Component for Managing Customer Relationships

        7.5.2 A Parameteric (Simple) Stack

        7.5.3 A Dictionary

        7.5.4 A Queue

      7.6 Gotchas

        7.6.1 Using set! to Assign to Variables Provided via provide/contract

    8 Input and Output

      8.1 Varieties of Ports

      8.2 Default Ports

      8.3 Reading and Writing Scheme Data

      8.4 Datatypes and Serialization

      8.5 Bytes, Characters, and Encodings

      8.6 I/O Patterns

    9 Regular Expressions

      9.1 Writing Regexp Patterns

      9.2 Matching Regexp Patterns

      9.3 Basic Assertions

      9.4 Characters and Character Classes

        9.4.1 Some Frequently Used Character Classes

        9.4.2 POSIX character classes

      9.5 Quantifiers

      9.6 Clusters

        9.6.1 Backreferences

        9.6.2 Non-capturing Clusters

        9.6.3 Cloisters

      9.7 Alternation

      9.8 Backtracking

      9.9 Looking Ahead and Behind

        9.9.1 Lookahead

        9.9.2 Lookbehind

      9.10 An Extended Example

    10 Exceptions and Control

      10.1 Exceptions

      10.2 Prompts and Aborts

      10.3 Continuations

    11 Iterations and Comprehensions

      11.1 Sequence Constructors

      11.2 for and for*

      11.3 for/list and for*/list

      11.4 for/and and for/or

      11.5 for/first and for/last

      11.6 for/fold and for*/fold

      11.7 Multiple-Valued Sequences

      11.8 Iteration Performance

    12 Pattern Matching

    13 Classes and Objects

      13.1 Methods

      13.2 Initialization Arguments

      13.3 Internal and External Names

      13.4 Interfaces

      13.5 Final, Augment, and Inner

      13.6 Controlling the Scope of External Names

      13.7 Mixins

        13.7.1 Mixins and Interfaces

        13.7.2 The mixin Form

        13.7.3 Parameterized Mixins

      13.8 Traits

        13.8.1 Traits as Sets of Mixins

        13.8.2 Inherit and Super in Traits

        13.8.3 The trait Form

    14 Units (Components)

      14.1 Signatures and Units

      14.2 Invoking Units

      14.3 Linking Units

      14.4 First-Class Units

      14.5 Whole-module Signatures and Units

      14.6 unit versus module

    15 Reflection and Dynamic Evaluation

      15.1 eval

        15.1.1 Local Scopes

        15.1.2 Namespaces

        15.1.3 Namespaces and Modules

      15.2 Manipulating Namespaces

        15.2.1 Creating and Installing Namespaces

        15.2.2 Sharing Data and Code Across Namespaces

    16 Macros

      16.1 Pattern-Based Macros

        16.1.1 define-syntax-rule

        16.1.2 Lexical Scope

        16.1.3 define-syntax and syntax-rules

        16.1.4 Matching Sequences

        16.1.5 Identifier Macros

        16.1.6 Macro-Generating Macros

        16.1.7 Extended Example: Call-by-Reference Functions

      16.2 General Macro Transformers

        16.2.1 Syntax Objects

        16.2.2 Mixing Patterns and Expressions: syntax-case

        16.2.3 with-syntax and generate-temporaries

        16.2.4 Compile and Run-Time Phases

        16.2.5 Syntax Certificates

    17 Performance

      17.1 The Bytecode and Just-in-Time (JIT) Compilers

      17.2 Modules and Performance

      17.3 Function-Call Optimizations

      17.4 Mutation and Performance

      17.5 letrec Performance

      17.6 Fixnum and Flonum Optimizations

      17.7 Memory Management

    18 Running and Creating Executables

      18.1 Running mzscheme and mred

        18.1.1 Interactive Mode

        18.1.2 Module Mode

        18.1.3 Load Mode

      18.2 Unix Scripts

      18.3 Creating Stand-Alone Executables

    19 Compilation and Configuration

    20 More Libraries

    Bibliography

    Index