Scheme Installation

1. To simplify logistics, in the login directory of your computer and account, create a Scheme directory.

2. After clicking on this Chez Scheme link, click on the open-source project, hosted at GitHub.

   • Below a listing of files, you will find a README.md file that briefly explains some major elements of Chez Scheme. (Remember this material, as you will need to come back to in shortly.)

   • Click the "Clone or Download" button, and select the "Download ZIP" option.

   • When prompted where to place the corresponding Zip file, choose, the "Scheme" directory that you created in Step 1.

3. After the Zip file has downloaded, move to your scheme directory.

   • On many machines, when you download a compressed ".zip" file, the computer will automatically unzip or decompress the downloaded file into numerous components. If you still have a ".zip" file, open a terminal window on your machine, move to your scheme directory, and type

        unzip ChezScheme-master.zip
         

   • At this point, check that your directory has about 2 dozen files and directories

4. Returning to your GitHub window in your browser, move to the bottom of the page, and click on the link for Building Chez Scheme. Note that the details for installing Chez Scheme differ for Max OS X and Windows machines.

   • On a Mac OS X computer, open a terminal window and move to your scheme directory and then the ChezScheme-master subdirection. With this done, installation of Chez Scheme follows just a couple of commands, typed in the terminal window. The commands will be something like:

         cd scheme
         cd ChezScheme-master
         ./configure
         sudo make install
         

     (For the last line, you may need to type your computer password.)

     If trouble arises, see additional notes within the README.md file.

   • If you are running a Windows machine, scroll down in the GitHub page (to about line 272), where you will find instructions for "Making an Install for Windows".

5. To test your environment,

   • type "scheme" in a terminal window, to check if the Scheme environment runs: A Chez Scheme header should be printed, followed by a greater-than symbol (>) as a prompt.

   • in the terminal window, type (+ 2 3) and the return key to obtain the sum 5.

   • for additional, simple tests, type the following, and interpret what results.

         (+ 1 2 3 4 5)
         (< 1 3 5 6 10)
         (< 1 3 5 10 6)
         

   • type (exit) or control-D to quit.

created December 28, 2019 revised December 28, 2019
For more information, please contact Henry M. Walker at walker@cs.grinnell.edu.