The DrScheme Project: An Overview

Matthias Felleisen, Robert Bruce Findler, Matthew Flatt, Shriram Krishnamurthi

ACM SIGPLAN Notices, 1998

Abstract

DrScheme provides a graphical user interface for editing and interactively evaluating Scheme programs on all major graphical platforms (Windows 95/nt, MacOs, Unix/X). The environment is especially well-suited to beginning programmers because it supports a tower of Scheme subsets. Each level corresponds to a particular stage in a typical introductory Scheme course and implements a stringent set of syntactic checks. The environment also pinpoints run-time exceptions in a graphical manner and implements a mostly functional read-eval-print loop.

DrScheme’s most advanced component is a powerful static debugger. It permits programmers to inspect programs for potential safety violations before running them. If the debugger discovers a potential problem, it explains the problem by drawing a value-flow graph over the program text. The value-flow graphs shows how an inappropriate value may reach a program operation and trigger a run-time check.

The development of DrScheme in Scheme validated the strengths of Scheme, but also revealed several weaknesses. To overcome the latter, the underlying Scheme implementation was extended with a class-based object system, a language of program units, and a sophisticated GUI engine. All of these extensions are available to the programmer, who can thus interactively create fully portable, graphical applications.

Comment

This brief invited paper provides only a rudimentary overview. Please instead refer to the journal paper. You will, of course, learn a good deal more from the software itself.

Paper

PostScript
PDF


These papers may differ in formatting from the versions that appear in print. They are made available only to support the rapid dissemination of results; the printed versions, not these, should be considered definitive. The copyrights belong to their respective owners.