As a tool to demonstrate the concepts and techniques promoted by CS212, we use the Scheme Programming Language. The development environment of choice is Rice University's DrScheme. We of course have made extensions to the language, known as Swindle (Scheme with Noodle Enhancements). Many of the features implemented in Swindle by Eli Barzilay are intended to promote the CS212 curriculum. Some characteristics of the Scheme language are:

• It is a functional programming language
• It is based on the lambda calculus
• It is self-commenting
• It has imperative features

Many of these features may appear confusing at the beginning of the course, but by the course's conclusion you will have a deep appreciation for each of them.

Installation Steps

DrScheme is available for the Windows, Macintosh, and several Unix operating systems. In addition to DrScheme, you will need to install the Swindle extensions. If you do not wish to install DrScheme on your own computer, CIT has made it available in several of there computer labs.

1. Download and install DrScheme from Rice University.
2. After installing DrScheme, open Help Desk.
3. From the File menu, choose Open URL...
4. Enter http://www.cs.cornell.edu/eli/swindle and choose OK.
5. Click on the link for the Swindle distribution as a PLT patch.
6. Choose to download and install.
7. After finished installing, open DrSwindle from the link in the PLT folder.

Documentation

For the most part, you should rely upon the Scheme and Swindle Quick References, since we will provide all the information you need as you need it. These additional resources are given to you as items that will help you grow beyond this course:

Books

• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (2/e), Harold Abelson, Gerald Jay Sussman with Julie Sussman, MIT Press, 1996
• The Scheme Programming Language, Ken Dickey
• How to Design Programs, Matthias Felleisen, Robert B. Findler, Matthew Flatt, and Shiram Krishnamurthi.
• The Scheme Programming Language (2/e), R. Kent Dybvig, Prentice Hall, 1996
• The Schemers Guide (2/e), Iain Ferguson with Edward Martin and Burt Kaufman, Schemers Inc., 1995
• The Little Schemer (4/e), Daniel P. Friedman and Matthias Felleisen, MIT Press, 1995
• The Seasoned Schemer, Daniel P. Friedman and Matthias Felleisen, MIT Press, 1995
• Exploring Computer Science with Scheme, Oliver Grillmeyer, Springer-Verlag, 1998
• Concrete Abstractions: An Introduction to Computer Science Using Scheme, Max Hailperin, Barbara Kaiser and Karl Knight, PWS Publishing, 1998
• Simply Scheme, Brian Harvey and Matthew Wright, MIT Press 
• The Schematics of Computation, Vincent Manis and James Little, Prentice-Hall, 1995 
• Scheme and the Art of Programming, George Springer and Daniel P. Friedman, MIT Press/McGraw Hill, 1990

Advanced Texts

• Essentials of Programming Languages, Daniel P. Friedman, Mitchell Wand and Christopher T. Haynes, MIT Press/McGraw Hill, 1992
• Principles of Programming Languages, Shriram Krishnamurthi and Matthias Felleisen, Rice University Department of Computer Science Technical Report CS TR 97-292

Scheme on the Web

• www.schemers.org information on books, other documents, implementations, research, etc.
• The Internet Scheme Repository at Indiana University.  online code, documents, etc.
• R5RS: The Revised(5) Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme.  Also in text and PostScript forms.
• The comp.lang.scheme newsgroup.

Swindle Update Information

Standard Method: Updating can be done in the normal way, by choosing Auto-Update from the Language menu. Alternatively, you can click on the version number when first starting DrSwindle.

Brute Method: Begin by deleting the Swindle, DrSwindle, and CS212 folders from the Collects folder in PLT. Then, either follow the normal Swindle installation procedure or visit the Swindle page and download the swindle.zip file and replace the necessary directories.

More installation details: On the Swindle web page - remember that "Swindle.plt" and "Swindle.zip" are always complete updated versions.

© 1999 Cornell University Computer Science