scheme-rs 0.2.0

Embedded scheme for the Rust ecosystem
Documentation
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<h1 id="language-reference">Language Reference<a class="headerlink" href="#language-reference" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h1>
<p>There are four core parts to the scheme language: </p>
<ul>
<li>The syntax for describing syntax datums, more commonly known as 
  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-expression">s-expressions</a>. This describes 
  how code and data are written as text.</li>
<li>The syntax for defining libraries. In their essence, libraries define a set
  of symbols to "import" (bring into their scope from other libraries) and 
  "export" (provide upon being imported by other libraries). </li>
<li>A set of core libraries that provide syntax and functions allowing one to 
  write programs.</li>
<li>A dynamic type system that describes the types of scheme values at runtime.</li>
</ul>
<p>This system is incredibly malleable; importing symbols, including the ones most
commonly associated with scheme's semantics, such as <code>define</code>, <code>set!</code> or even
<code>lambda</code> is entirely optional. New languages can be defined as libraries, 
allowing for an unprecedented amount of flexibility. </p>
<p>We will go over each of these core parts briefly. For a more in depth overview 
of the precise semantics of the language, please refer to the 
<a href="https://www.r6rs.org/">r6rs specification</a>, of which this document is a highly
abridged and paraphrased facsimile. </p>
<h2 id="syntax">Syntax<a class="headerlink" href="#syntax" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h2>
<h3 id="lexical-syntax">Lexical syntax<a class="headerlink" href="#lexical-syntax" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3>
<p>The lexical syntax of Scheme determines how characters are split into sequence
of tokens, also known as "lexemes". Lexemes are separated by delimiters, which 
include any amount of whitespace along with the characters <code>(</code>, <code>)</code>, <code>[</code>, <code>]</code>, 
<code>"</code>, <code>;</code>, and <code>#</code>. The following lists all of the possible classifications of
lexemes:</p>
<h4 id="booleans">Booleans<a class="headerlink" href="#booleans" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h4>
<p>The values of True and False are represented by the lexemes <code>#t</code> (or <code>#T</code>) and 
<code>#f</code> (or <code>#F</code>) respectively.</p>
<h4 id="identifiers">Identifiers<a class="headerlink" href="#identifiers" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h4>
<p>Identifiers are strings of characters that must start with any character that 
is not a delimiter and not a number. Practically, that means that an identifier
starts with a letter or special character like <code>$</code> or <code>&lt;</code>. </p>
<p>The following are all examples of identifiers:</p>
<div class="language-text highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span id="__span-0-1"><a id="__codelineno-0-1" name="__codelineno-0-1" href="#__codelineno-0-1"></a>&lt;=
</span><span id="__span-0-2"><a id="__codelineno-0-2" name="__codelineno-0-2" href="#__codelineno-0-2"></a>a-&gt;b
</span><span id="__span-0-3"><a id="__codelineno-0-3" name="__codelineno-0-3" href="#__codelineno-0-3"></a>hello-world
</span><span id="__span-0-4"><a id="__codelineno-0-4" name="__codelineno-0-4" href="#__codelineno-0-4"></a>goodbye_world
</span><span id="__span-0-5"><a id="__codelineno-0-5" name="__codelineno-0-5" href="#__codelineno-0-5"></a>foo/bar
</span><span id="__span-0-6"><a id="__codelineno-0-6" name="__codelineno-0-6" href="#__codelineno-0-6"></a>$$$12343$$$
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>Scheme is much more permissive with what characters can be included in 
identifiers than other languages. Thus underscores are typically discouraged
for naming multi-word variable names, instead using hyphens in what is 
typically called 
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_case#Kebab_case">kebab case</a>.</p>
<div class="language-text highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span id="__span-1-1"><a id="__codelineno-1-1" name="__codelineno-1-1" href="#__codelineno-1-1"></a>dont_do_this
</span><span id="__span-1-2"><a id="__codelineno-1-2" name="__codelineno-1-2" href="#__codelineno-1-2"></a>do-this-instead
</span></code></pre></div>
<h4 id="numbers">Numbers<a class="headerlink" href="#numbers" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h4>
<p>Scheme provides the ability to specify a much wider collection of numerical
literals than other programming languages:</p>
<div class="language-scheme highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span id="__span-2-1"><a id="__codelineno-2-1" name="__codelineno-2-1" href="#__codelineno-2-1"></a><span class="mi">1234</span><span class="w">       </span><span class="c1">; Typical base-ten digit numeral</span>
</span><span id="__span-2-2"><a id="__codelineno-2-2" name="__codelineno-2-2" href="#__codelineno-2-2"></a><span class="mi">-53</span><span class="w">        </span><span class="c1">; Negative number</span>
</span><span id="__span-2-3"><a id="__codelineno-2-3" name="__codelineno-2-3" href="#__codelineno-2-3"></a><span class="mi">+54</span><span class="w">        </span><span class="c1">; Positive number</span>
</span><span id="__span-2-4"><a id="__codelineno-2-4" name="__codelineno-2-4" href="#__codelineno-2-4"></a><span class="mf">3.1415926</span><span class="w">  </span><span class="c1">; Floating point numbers</span>
</span><span id="__span-2-5"><a id="__codelineno-2-5" name="__codelineno-2-5" href="#__codelineno-2-5"></a><span class="mb">#b0101010</span><span class="w">  </span><span class="c1">; Binary number</span>
</span><span id="__span-2-6"><a id="__codelineno-2-6" name="__codelineno-2-6" href="#__codelineno-2-6"></a><span class="mo">#o0237777</span><span class="w">  </span><span class="c1">; Octal number</span>
</span><span id="__span-2-7"><a id="__codelineno-2-7" name="__codelineno-2-7" href="#__codelineno-2-7"></a><span class="mh">#xdeadbeef</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="c1">; Hexadecimal number</span>
</span><span id="__span-2-8"><a id="__codelineno-2-8" name="__codelineno-2-8" href="#__codelineno-2-8"></a><span class="mi">7/22</span><span class="w">       </span><span class="c1">; Rational number</span>
</span><span id="__span-2-9"><a id="__codelineno-2-9" name="__codelineno-2-9" href="#__codelineno-2-9"></a><span class="mf">+5.2+7.3i</span><span class="w">  </span><span class="c1">; Complex number</span>
</span><span id="__span-2-10"><a id="__codelineno-2-10" name="__codelineno-2-10" href="#__codelineno-2-10"></a><span class="mf">+inf.0</span><span class="w">     </span><span class="c1">; Positive infinity</span>
</span><span id="__span-2-11"><a id="__codelineno-2-11" name="__codelineno-2-11" href="#__codelineno-2-11"></a><span class="mf">-inf.0</span><span class="w">     </span><span class="c1">; Negative infinity</span>
</span><span id="__span-2-12"><a id="__codelineno-2-12" name="__codelineno-2-12" href="#__codelineno-2-12"></a><span class="mf">+nan.0</span><span class="w">     </span><span class="c1">; Not A Number (NaN)</span>
</span></code></pre></div>
<h4 id="characters">Characters<a class="headerlink" href="#characters" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h4>
<p>Unicode code points (also known as characters) are represented by the prefix
<code>#\</code> followed by the character literal, a special character name, or <code>x</code> 
followed by a hexadecimal scalar value. Valid special character names include
<code>nul</code>, <code>alarm</code>, <code>backspace</code>, <code>tab</code>, <code>linefeed</code>, <code>newline</code>, <code>vtab</code>, <code>page</code>,
<code>return</code>, <code>esc</code>, <code>space</code>, and <code>delete</code>.</p>
<div class="language-scheme highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span id="__span-3-1"><a id="__codelineno-3-1" name="__codelineno-3-1" href="#__codelineno-3-1"></a><span class="sc">#\a</span><span class="w">         </span><span class="c1">; Lower case letter a</span>
</span><span id="__span-3-2"><a id="__codelineno-3-2" name="__codelineno-3-2" href="#__codelineno-3-2"></a><span class="sc">#\A</span><span class="w">         </span><span class="c1">; Upper case letter A</span>
</span><span id="__span-3-3"><a id="__codelineno-3-3" name="__codelineno-3-3" href="#__codelineno-3-3"></a><span class="sc">#\(</span><span class="w">         </span><span class="c1">; Left parenthesis</span>
</span><span id="__span-3-4"><a id="__codelineno-3-4" name="__codelineno-3-4" href="#__codelineno-3-4"></a><span class="sc">#\linefeed</span><span class="w">  </span><span class="c1">; U+000A</span>
</span><span id="__span-3-5"><a id="__codelineno-3-5" name="__codelineno-3-5" href="#__codelineno-3-5"></a><span class="sc">#\newline</span><span class="w">   </span><span class="c1">; Same as #\linefeed but considered depricated</span>
</span><span id="__span-3-6"><a id="__codelineno-3-6" name="__codelineno-3-6" href="#__codelineno-3-6"></a><span class="o">#</span><span class="err">\</span><span class="k">λ</span><span class="w">         </span><span class="c1">; U+03BB</span>
</span></code></pre></div>
<h4 id="strings">Strings<a class="headerlink" href="#strings" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h4>
<p>Strings are formatted pretty similarly to other programming languages; they are
a string of characters surrounded by two double quotes (<code>"</code>). <code>\</code> is used to 
escape <code>"</code> and various other escape sequences. A <code>\</code> at the end of line can be 
used to escape whitespace between the current line and the next:</p>
<div class="language-scheme highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span id="__span-4-1"><a id="__codelineno-4-1" name="__codelineno-4-1" href="#__codelineno-4-1"></a><span class="s">&quot;hello, world!&quot;</span>
</span><span id="__span-4-2"><a id="__codelineno-4-2" name="__codelineno-4-2" href="#__codelineno-4-2"></a><span class="s">&quot;hello?</span><span class="se">\n</span><span class="s">world!&quot;</span>
</span><span id="__span-4-3"><a id="__codelineno-4-3" name="__codelineno-4-3" href="#__codelineno-4-3"></a><span class="s">&quot;A</span>
</span><span id="__span-4-4"><a id="__codelineno-4-4" name="__codelineno-4-4" href="#__codelineno-4-4"></a><span class="s">bc&quot;</span><span class="w">               </span><span class="c1">; This is U+0041, U+000A, U+0062 and U+0063</span>
</span><span id="__span-4-5"><a id="__codelineno-4-5" name="__codelineno-4-5" href="#__codelineno-4-5"></a><span class="s">&quot;A</span><span class="se">\</span>
</span><span id="__span-4-6"><a id="__codelineno-4-6" name="__codelineno-4-6" href="#__codelineno-4-6"></a><span class="s">bc&quot;</span><span class="w">               </span><span class="c1">; This is U+0041, U+0062 and U+0063</span>
</span></code></pre></div>
<h4 id="comments">Comments<a class="headerlink" href="#comments" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h4>
<p>Comments in Scheme come in three different flavors:</p>
<h5 id="line-comments">Line comments<a class="headerlink" href="#line-comments" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h5>
<p>Single line comments are indicated with the semicolon (<code>;</code>) character. The 
comment extends to the end of the line:</p>
<div class="language-scheme highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span id="__span-5-1"><a id="__codelineno-5-1" name="__codelineno-5-1" href="#__codelineno-5-1"></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">+</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="c1">; ) 4 5 6</span>
</span><span id="__span-5-2"><a id="__codelineno-5-2" name="__codelineno-5-2" href="#__codelineno-5-2"></a><span class="w">   </span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="c1">; =&gt; returns 10</span>
</span></code></pre></div>
<h5 id="block-comments">Block comments<a class="headerlink" href="#block-comments" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h5>
<p>Block comments are delimited by pairs of <code>#|</code> and <code>|#</code> characters. They can be
nested:</p>
<div class="language-scheme highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span id="__span-6-1"><a id="__codelineno-6-1" name="__codelineno-6-1" href="#__codelineno-6-1"></a><span class="cm">#|</span>
</span><span id="__span-6-2"><a id="__codelineno-6-2" name="__codelineno-6-2" href="#__codelineno-6-2"></a><span class="cm">    This is a block comment</span>
</span><span id="__span-6-3"><a id="__codelineno-6-3" name="__codelineno-6-3" href="#__codelineno-6-3"></a><span class="cm">    #|</span>
</span><span id="__span-6-4"><a id="__codelineno-6-4" name="__codelineno-6-4" href="#__codelineno-6-4"></a><span class="cm">        This is an inner block comment</span>
</span><span id="__span-6-5"><a id="__codelineno-6-5" name="__codelineno-6-5" href="#__codelineno-6-5"></a><span class="cm">    |#</span>
</span><span id="__span-6-6"><a id="__codelineno-6-6" name="__codelineno-6-6" href="#__codelineno-6-6"></a><span class="cm">|#</span>
</span></code></pre></div>
<h5 id="datum-comments">Datum comments<a class="headerlink" href="#datum-comments" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h5>
<p>The <code>#;</code> prefix can be used to comment out whole <a href="#datum-syntax">datums</a>. Here is an 
example that shows every type of comment in action:</p>
<div class="language-scheme highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span id="__span-7-1"><a id="__codelineno-7-1" name="__codelineno-7-1" href="#__codelineno-7-1"></a><span class="cm">#|</span>
</span><span id="__span-7-2"><a id="__codelineno-7-2" name="__codelineno-7-2" href="#__codelineno-7-2"></a><span class="cm">    The FACT procedure computes the factorial</span>
</span><span id="__span-7-3"><a id="__codelineno-7-3" name="__codelineno-7-3" href="#__codelineno-7-3"></a><span class="cm">    of a non-negative integer.</span>
</span><span id="__span-7-4"><a id="__codelineno-7-4" name="__codelineno-7-4" href="#__codelineno-7-4"></a><span class="cm">|#</span>
</span><span id="__span-7-5"><a id="__codelineno-7-5" name="__codelineno-7-5" href="#__codelineno-7-5"></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">define</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nv">fact</span>
</span><span id="__span-7-6"><a id="__codelineno-7-6" name="__codelineno-7-6" href="#__codelineno-7-6"></a><span class="w">  </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">lambda</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">n</span><span class="p">)</span>
</span><span id="__span-7-7"><a id="__codelineno-7-7" name="__codelineno-7-7" href="#__codelineno-7-7"></a><span class="w">    </span><span class="c1">;; base case</span>
</span><span id="__span-7-8"><a id="__codelineno-7-8" name="__codelineno-7-8" href="#__codelineno-7-8"></a><span class="w">    </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">if</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">=</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nv">n</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">)</span>
</span><span id="__span-7-9"><a id="__codelineno-7-9" name="__codelineno-7-9" href="#__codelineno-7-9"></a><span class="w">        </span><span class="c">#;(= n 1)</span>
</span><span id="__span-7-10"><a id="__codelineno-7-10" name="__codelineno-7-10" href="#__codelineno-7-10"></a><span class="w">        </span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="w">       </span><span class="c1">; identity of *</span>
</span><span id="__span-7-11"><a id="__codelineno-7-11" name="__codelineno-7-11" href="#__codelineno-7-11"></a><span class="w">        </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">*</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nv">n</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">fact</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">-</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nv">n</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">))))))</span>
</span></code></pre></div>
<h3 id="datum-syntax">Datum syntax<a class="headerlink" href="#datum-syntax" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3>
<p>The datum syntax is a description of how Scheme 
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-expression">s-expressions</a> are represented in 
terms of sequence of lexemes. There are three components to the datum syntax:</p>
<ul>
<li>Pairs and lists, enclosed by <code>(</code> <code>)</code> or <code>[</code> <code>]</code></li>
<li>Vectors, enclosed by <code>#(</code> <code>)</code></li>
<li>Bytevectors, enclosed by <code>#vu8(</code> <code>)</code></li>
<li>Non-standard datums, such as hashtable literals</li>
</ul>
<p>We will go through each of these one-by-one:</p>
<h4 id="pairs-and-lists">Pairs and lists<a class="headerlink" href="#pairs-and-lists" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h4>
<p>The most fundamental datums are pairs and lists, the most basic of which is 
<code>()</code> which represents the empty list. <code>()</code> only has one value and it is itself.</p>
<p>Pairs can be represented via dot notation, i.e. <code>(⟨datum1⟩ . ⟨datum2⟩)</code>. The 
first field is called the "car" (more commonly known as the "head") and the 
second is called the "cdr" (more commonly known as the "tail). </p>
<p>Lists are constructed from multiple pairs recursively in their cdr fields. For
example, </p>
<p><div class="language-text highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span id="__span-8-1"><a id="__codelineno-8-1" name="__codelineno-8-1" href="#__codelineno-8-1"></a>(a b c d e)
</span></code></pre></div>
is equivalent to 
<div class="language-text highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span id="__span-9-1"><a id="__codelineno-9-1" name="__codelineno-9-1" href="#__codelineno-9-1"></a>(a . (b . (c . (d . (e . ())))))
</span></code></pre></div></p>
<p>A list is considered "proper" if the final cdr is the empty list. For example,
<div class="language-text highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span id="__span-10-1"><a id="__codelineno-10-1" name="__codelineno-10-1" href="#__codelineno-10-1"></a>(a b c d . e)
</span></code></pre></div>
is equivalent to
<div class="language-text highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span id="__span-11-1"><a id="__codelineno-11-1" name="__codelineno-11-1" href="#__codelineno-11-1"></a>(a . (b . (c . (d . e))))
</span></code></pre></div>
and is not considered proper since the final cdr is the symbol <code>e</code> rather than
the empty list <code>()</code>.</p>
<h4 id="vectors">Vectors<a class="headerlink" href="#vectors" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h4>
<p>Vectors, also known as arrays, are represented with the notation 
<code>#(⟨datum⟩ ...)</code>. For example, a vector of length four that contains the number
zero at index zero, a pair of two numbers and index one, and a string at index
three could be represented as follows:</p>
<div class="language-scheme highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span id="__span-12-1"><a id="__codelineno-12-1" name="__codelineno-12-1" href="#__codelineno-12-1"></a><span class="o">#</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">.</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">&quot;Alice&quot;</span><span class="p">)</span>
</span></code></pre></div>
<h4 id="bytevectors">Bytevectors<a class="headerlink" href="#bytevectors" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h4>
<p>Similar to vectors, bytevectors are arrays, but they can only contain values 
that can fit in a single 
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte">unsigned 8-bit byte</a>. For example, a 
bytevector of length three containing the values 1, 2, and 255 could be 
represented as follows:</p>
<div class="language-scheme highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span id="__span-13-1"><a id="__codelineno-13-1" name="__codelineno-13-1" href="#__codelineno-13-1"></a><span class="o">#</span><span class="nv">vu8</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">255</span><span class="p">)</span>
</span></code></pre></div>
<!--
#### Non-standard datums

scheme-rs supports some non-standard but common datum literals:

##### Hashtables 

The prefix `#hash` can be used to construct hashtable literals that use the
`equal?` equivalence predicate and `hash-equal` hash function. Hashtable 
literals have the form
<div class="language-text highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span id="__span-14-1"><a id="__codelineno-14-1" name="__codelineno-14-1" href="#__codelineno-14-1"></a>#hash((key . value) ...)
</span></code></pre></div>

For example, the following
is a map of countries in North America to their capitals:

<div class="language-scheme highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span id="__span-15-1"><a id="__codelineno-15-1" name="__codelineno-15-1" href="#__codelineno-15-1"></a><span class="o">#</span><span class="nb">hash</span><span class="p">(</span>
</span><span id="__span-15-2"><a id="__codelineno-15-2" name="__codelineno-15-2" href="#__codelineno-15-2"></a><span class="w">    </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&quot;United States&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">.</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">&quot;Washington D.C.&quot;</span><span class="p">)</span>
</span><span id="__span-15-3"><a id="__codelineno-15-3" name="__codelineno-15-3" href="#__codelineno-15-3"></a><span class="w">    </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&quot;Mexico&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">.</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">&quot;Ciudad de México&quot;</span><span class="p">)</span>
</span><span id="__span-15-4"><a id="__codelineno-15-4" name="__codelineno-15-4" href="#__codelineno-15-4"></a><span class="w">    </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&quot;Canada&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">.</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">&quot;Ottawa&quot;</span><span class="p">)</span>
</span><span id="__span-15-5"><a id="__codelineno-15-5" name="__codelineno-15-5" href="#__codelineno-15-5"></a><span class="p">)</span>
</span></code></pre></div>

!!! warning

    The `#hash` prefix is currently implemented as an alias that calls the 
    function `alist->hashtable` with its quoted contents. Therefore, the 
    `(rnrs hashtables (6))` library needs to be included to use this prefix. In
    the future, this prefix will be a core part of the syntax.

-->

<h2 id="library-syntax">Library syntax<a class="headerlink" href="#library-syntax" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h2>
<p>Libraries provide a syntax for importing and exporting symbols. </p>
<p>Libraries have the following form:</p>
<div class="language-scheme highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span id="__span-16-1"><a id="__codelineno-16-1" name="__codelineno-16-1" href="#__codelineno-16-1"></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">library</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="err">⟨</span><span class="nv">name</span><span class="err">⟩</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">...</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="err">⟨</span><span class="nb">version</span><span class="err">⟩</span><span class="nv">?</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w"> </span>
</span><span id="__span-16-2"><a id="__codelineno-16-2" name="__codelineno-16-2" href="#__codelineno-16-2"></a><span class="w">  </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">export</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="err">⟨</span><span class="nv">export-spec</span><span class="err">⟩</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">...</span><span class="p">)</span>
</span><span id="__span-16-3"><a id="__codelineno-16-3" name="__codelineno-16-3" href="#__codelineno-16-3"></a><span class="w">  </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="err">⟨</span><span class="nv">import-spec</span><span class="err">⟩</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">...</span><span class="p">)</span>
</span><span id="__span-16-4"><a id="__codelineno-16-4" name="__codelineno-16-4" href="#__codelineno-16-4"></a>
</span><span id="__span-16-5"><a id="__codelineno-16-5" name="__codelineno-16-5" href="#__codelineno-16-5"></a><span class="w">  </span><span class="err">⟨</span><span class="nv">body</span><span class="err">⟩</span><span class="p">)</span>
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>The <code>⟨name⟩</code> of the library is a list of symbols, and should match with the 
location of the library in the filesytem. For example, a library named
<code>(foo bar baz)</code> should be located at <code>foo/bar/baz.sls</code>.</p>
<p>The optional <code>⟨version⟩</code> of a library is either null or a list of integers 
that specify the <a href="https://semver.org/">semantic version</a> of the library.</p>
<p><code>⟨export-spec⟩</code> is either a symbol specifying a variable to be exported or
a datum of the form <code>(import ⟨import-spec⟩)</code>. Exports of the latter form 
export all values included in the import.</p>
<p>An <code>⟨import-spec⟩</code> has one of the following forms:</p>
<ul>
<li><code>⟨library-reference⟩</code></li>
<li><code>(library ⟨library-reference⟩)</code>
  Allows for importing of libraries that include the words "only", "except", 
  "prefix", or "rename".</li>
<li><code>(only ⟨import-spec⟩ ⟨identifier⟩ ...)</code>
  Imports only the identifiers specified from the import spec.</li>
<li><code>(except ⟨import-spec⟩ ⟨identifier⟩ ...)</code> 
  Imports all of the identifiers from the import spec <em>except</em> for the ones 
  specified.</li>
<li><code>(prefix ⟨import-spec⟩ ⟨identifier⟩)</code>
  Prefixes all of the identifier in the import spec with the provided 
  identifier.</li>
<li><code>(rename ⟨import-spec⟩ (⟨identifier1⟩ ⟨identifier2⟩) ...)</code>
  Renames each identifier in the import spec that matches the nth <code>car</code> in 
  the provided list with the nth <code>cdr</code>.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="type-system">Type system<a class="headerlink" href="#type-system" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h2>
<p>Scheme is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_system#DYNAMIC">dynamically typed</a>,
meaning the type of value is determined at run time and not at compile type.</p>
<p>Scheme values can have at most one type, of the following categories:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Null</strong>: Can only be one possible value which is itself. Commonly known as 
  the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_type">unit type</a>.</li>
<li><strong>Pair</strong>: A collection of two values.</li>
<li><strong>Boolean</strong>: Can either be <code>true</code> or <code>false</code>.</li>
<li><strong>Character</strong>: A unicode code point. </li>
<li><strong>Number</strong>: A numerical value on the <a href="#numeric-tower">numerical tower</a>. </li>
<li><strong>String</strong>: An array of unicode code points.</li>
<li><strong>Symbol</strong>: A symbol. Conceptually similar to an immutable string. Symbols are
  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_interning">interned</a> so that symbols 
  with the same spelling always satisfy <code>eq?</code>.</li>
<li><strong>Vector</strong>: An array of values.</li>
<li><strong>Byte-vector</strong>: An array of bytes.</li>
<li><strong>Syntax</strong>: Value containing a representation of the <a href="#syntax">datum syntax</a>,
  including source code information.</li>
<li><strong>Procedure</strong>: A scheme procedure, more commonly known as a 
  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closure_(computer_programming)">closure</a>.</li>
<li><strong>Record</strong>: A <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_(computer_science)">record</a>.</li>
<li><strong>Record Type Descriptor</strong>: A description of a record's type.</li>
<li><strong>Hashtable</strong>: A <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_table">hash table</a>. </li>
<li><strong>Port</strong>: A value that can handle input/output from the outside world.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="numeric-tower">Numeric tower<a class="headerlink" href="#numeric-tower" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3>
<p>Numbers can be any member of increasingly larger sets, of which there are the
following:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Integers</em>, which is a subset of</li>
<li><em>Rationals</em>, which is a subset of </li>
<li><em>Reals</em>, which is a subset of </li>
<li><em>Complex Numbers</em> of which all numbers are a member of.</li>
</ul>
<p>In scheme-rs, integers are represented with either 64-bit signed integers or 
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrary-precision_arithmetic">big numbers</a>, 
depending on their size. Rationals are represented as two big numbers. Reals
are represented via a 64-bit 
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_754">IEEE float point number</a>. Complex 
numbers are composed of two simple numbers, which can be any of the numeric
types previously listed.</p>














                
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