The Scheme programming language

What Hacker News says

1. DiogenesianJul 2026
   The Scheme Programming Language by R. Kent Dybvig is very much worth reading after you finish SICP. Truly the same caliber as K&R's C Programming Language, and more up-to-date (R6RS). The earlier exercises aren't too tricky (except call/cc headaches), but the final chapter has some good meaty Scheme projects that will teach you a ton.

   It's free online: https://scheme.com/tspl4/

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2. ulbuMay 2026
   scheme is great, but the dx of some implementations is not. i’m on guile scheme due to guix, and frankly, i’m hating it a quite bit.

   stack traces are esoteric and error messages entirely unhelpful,

   documentation masquerades as deep but is indeed inconsistent and prosaic, mixing styles of reference, explanation, and how-to willy-nilly, (compare with Dybvig’s The Scheme Programming Language, which is focused and consistent, and it takes no time to get your answers; there’s just no method to guile and guix manuals), i hate it big time,

   there’s big gaps in documentation (especially with Guix – there’s literally zero information about `define-record-type*` which is used everywhere in its codebase; admittedly, not scheme related, but still),

   the cli requires too much memorization,

   most modules are not named, but numbered, ie, instead of something like `(base list)`, you get `(srfi srfi-1)`, so you need to either memorize, or go through the info pages for each procedure you need to import, which means you also need to know the exact names for the procedures you need beforehand,

   there’s like 4 ways to define a record, each with a different feature set and incompatibilities,

   etc.

   these are the reasons i find it hard to use.

   to respond to the content of the article, the different neurotype idea is off, because scheme allows you very well to express sequences of operations; the ecosystem of APIs may not cater to this tho. although if it was rephrased into “scheme emphasizes symbolic manipulations, as opposed to operating a machine”, i would agree

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3. rednosehackerSep 2020
   Dear lambda programmer,

   If you are interested in learning Scheme, please help yourself. And have fun hacking !

   Dear Schemers,

   I would like to ask you which resources would you recommend to a beginner to get started in the Scheme world (and hopefully like it) ? Here are mine :

   For readers :

       SICP (Harold Abelson, Gerald Jay Sussman, Julie Sussman )
   
       HtDP (Matthias Felleisen, Robert Bruce Findler, Matthew Flatt, Shriram Krishnamurthi)
   
       The Little Schemer (Daniel P. Friedman, Matthias Felleisen)
   
       Teach Yourself Scheme in Fixnum Days (Dorai Sitaram)
   
       The Scheme Programming Language (R. Kent Dybvig)
   

   For video watchers :

       Andy Balaam videos
   

   For practitioners :

       Exercism.io
   
       Programming Praxis
   
   

   Anything else ?
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4. rohwerApr 2016
   Dybvig's compiler course was exemplary. Say what you may about Scheme, you learned so much more in those classes. His Scheme Programming Language book is highly recommended. Especially check out his extended examples chapter: http://www.scheme.com/tspl4/examples.html#./examples:h0
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5. telemachosJan 2012
   Two others for Scheme:

   The Scheme Programming Language, 4th Ed. by R. Kent Dybvig[1]

   Simply Scheme: Introducing Computer Science by Brian Harvey and Matthew Wright, 2nd Ed.[2]

   [1]: http://www.scheme.com/tspl4/

   [2]: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/ss-toc2.html

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6. edwJun 2011
   _The Scheme Programming Language_ by Kent Dybvig is also very good. _Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs_ is my preferred "how to think in Scheme" book. I would recommend against _How to Design Programs_, which is entirely too pandering and focused on imperative programming for my tastes.

   http://www.scheme.com/tspl3/

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