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+---
+language: "CHICKEN"
+filename: CHICKEN.scm
+contributors:
+ - ["Diwakar Wagle", "https://github.com/deewakar"]
+---
+
+
+CHICKEN is an implementation of Scheme programming language that can
+compile Scheme programs to C code as well as interpret them. CHICKEN
+supports RSR5 and RSR7 (work in progress) standards and many extensions.
+
+
+```scheme
+;; #!/usr/bin/env csi -s
+
+;; Run the CHICKEN REPL in the commandline as follows :
+;; $ csi
+
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+; 0. Syntax
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+
+;; Single line comments start with a semicolon
+
+#| Block comments
+ can span multiple lines and...
+ #| can be nested
+ |#
+|#
+
+;; S-expression comments are used to comment out expressions
+#; (display "nothing") ; discard this expression
+
+;; CHICKEN has two fundamental pieces of syntax: Atoms and S-expressions
+;; an atom is something that evaluates to itself
+;; all builtin data types viz. numbers, chars, booleans, strings etc. are atoms
+;; Furthermore an atom can be a symbol, an identifier, a keyword, a procedure
+;; or the empty list (also called null)
+'athing ;; => athing
+'+ ;; => +
++ ;; => <procedure C_plus>
+
+;; S-expressions (short for symbolic expressions) consists of one or more atoms
+(quote +) ;; => + ; another way of writing '+
+(+ 1 2 3) ;; => 6 ; this S-expression evaluates to a function call
+'(+ 1 2 3) ;; => (+ 1 2 3) ; evaluates to a list
+
+
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+; 1. Primitive Datatypes and Operators
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+
+;; Numbers
+99999999999999999999 ;; integers
+#b1010 ;; binary ; => 10
+#o10 ;; octal ; => 8
+#x8ded ;; hexadecimal ; => 36333
+3.14 ;; real
+6.02e+23
+3/4 ;; rational
+
+;;Characters and Strings
+#\A ;; A char
+"Hello, World!" ;; strings are fixed-length arrays of characters
+
+;; Booleans
+#t ;; true
+#f ;; false
+
+;; Function call is written as (f x y z ...)
+;; where f is a function and x,y,z, ... are arguments
+(print "Hello, World!") ;; => Hello, World!
+;; formatted output
+(printf "Hello, ~a.\n" "World") ;; => Hello, World.
+
+;; print commandline arguments
+(map print (command-line-arguments))
+
+(list 'foo 'bar 'baz) ;; => (foo bar baz)
+(string-append "pine" "apple") ;; => "pineapple"
+(string-ref "tapioca" 3) ;; => #\i;; character 'i' is at index 3
+(string->list "CHICKEN") ;; => (#\C #\H #\I #\C #\K #\E #\N)
+(string->intersperse '("1" "2") ":") ;; => "1:2"
+(string-split "1:2:3" ":") ;; => ("1" "2" "3")
+
+
+;; Predicates are special functions that return boolean values
+(atom? #t) ;; => #t
+
+(symbol? #t) ;; => #f
+
+(symbol? '+) ;; => #t
+
+(procedure? +) ;; => #t
+
+(pair? '(1 2)) ;; => #t
+
+(pair? '(1 2 . 3)) ;; => #t
+
+(pair? '()) ;; => #f
+
+(list? '()) ;; => #t
+
+
+;; Some arithmetic operations
+
+(+ 1 1) ;; => 2
+(- 8 1) ;; => 7
+(* 10 2) ;; => 20
+(expt 2 3) ;; => 8
+(remainder 5 2) ;; => 1
+(/ 35 5) ;; => 7
+(/ 1 3) ;; => 0.333333333333333
+
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+; 2. Variables
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+
+;; You can create variables with define
+;; A variable name can use any character except: ()[]{}",'`;#\
+(define myvar 5)
+myvar ;; => 5
+
+;; Alias to a procedure
+(define ** expt)
+(** 2 3) ;; => 8
+
+;; Accessing an undefined variable raises an exception
+s ;; => Error: unbound variable: s
+
+;; Local binding
+(let ((me "Bob"))
+ (print me)) ;; => Bob
+
+(print me) ;; => Error: unbound variable: me
+
+;; Assign a new value to previously defined variable
+(set! myvar 10)
+myvar ;; => 10
+
+
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+; 3. Collections
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+
+;; Pairs
+;; 'cons' constructs pairs,
+;; 'car' extracts the first element, 'cdr' extracts the rest of the elements
+(cons 'subject 'verb) ;; => '(subject . verb)
+(car (cons 'subject 'verb)) ;; => subject
+(cdr (cons 'subject 'verb)) ;; => verb
+
+;; Lists
+;; cons creates a new list if the second item is a list
+(cons 0 '()) ;; => (0)
+(cons 1 (cons 2 (cons 3 '()))) ;; => (1 2 3)
+;; 'list' is a convenience variadic constructor for lists
+(list 1 2 3) ;; => (1 2 3)
+
+
+;; Use 'append' to append lists together
+(append '(1 2) '(3 4)) ;; => (1 2 3 4)
+
+;; Some basic operations on lists
+(map add1 '(1 2 3)) ;; => (2 3 4)
+(reverse '(1 3 4 7)) ;; => (7 4 3 1)
+(sort '(11 22 33 44) >) ;; => (44 33 22 11)
+
+(define days '(SUN MON FRI))
+(list-ref days 1) ;; => MON
+(set! (list-ref days 1) 'TUE)
+days ;; => (SUN TUE FRI)
+
+;; Vectors
+;; Vectors are heterogeneous structures whose elements are indexed by integers
+;; A Vector typically occupies less space than a list of the same length
+;; Random access of an element in a vector is faster than in a list
+#(1 2 3) ;; => #(1 2 3) ;; literal syntax
+(vector 'a 'b 'c) ;; => #(a b c)
+(vector? #(1 2 3)) ;; => #t
+(vector-length #(1 (2) "a")) ;; => 3
+(vector-ref #(1 (2) (3 3)) 2);; => (3 3)
+
+(define vec #(1 2 3))
+(vector-set! vec 2 4)
+vec ;; => #(1 2 4)
+
+;; Vectors can be created from lists and vice-verca
+(vector->list #(1 2 4)) ;; => '(1 2 4)
+(list->vector '(a b c)) ;; => #(a b c)
+
+
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+; 4. Functions
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+
+;; Use 'lambda' to create functions.
+;; A function always returns the value of its last expression
+(lambda () "Hello World") ;; => #<procedure (?)>
+
+;; Use extra parens around function definition to execute
+((lambda () "Hello World")) ;; => Hello World ;; argument list is empty
+
+;; A function with an argument
+((lambda (x) (* x x)) 3) ;; => 9
+;; A function with two arguments
+((lambda (x y) (* x y)) 2 3) ;; => 6
+
+;; assign a function to a variable
+(define sqr (lambda (x) (* x x)))
+sqr ;; => #<procedure (sqr x)>
+(sqr 3) ;; => 9
+
+;; We can shorten this using the function definition syntactic sugar
+(define (sqr x) (* x x))
+(sqr 3) ;; => 9
+
+;; We can redefine existing procedures
+(foldl cons '() '(1 2 3 4 5)) ;; => (((((() . 1) . 2) . 3) . 4) . 5)
+(define (foldl func accu alist)
+ (if (null? alist)
+ accu
+ (foldl func (func (car alist) accu) (cdr alist))))
+
+(foldl cons '() '(1 2 3 4 5)) ;; => (5 4 3 2 1)
+
+
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+; 5. Equality
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+
+;; For numbers use '='
+(= 3 3.0) ;; => #t
+(= 2 1) ;; => #f
+
+;; 'eq?' returns #t if two arguments refer to the same object in memory
+;; In other words, it's a simple pointer comparision.
+(eq? '() '()) ;; => #t ;; there's only one empty list in memory
+(eq? (list 3) (list 3)) ;; => #f ;; not the same object
+(eq? 'yes 'yes) ;; => #t
+(eq? 3 3) ;; => #t ;; don't do this even if it works in this case
+(eq? 3 3.0) ;; => #f ;; it's better to use '=' for number comparisions
+(eq? "Hello" "Hello") ;; => #f
+
+;; 'eqv?' is same as 'eq?' all datatypes except numbers and characters
+(eqv? 3 3.0) ;; => #f
+(eqv? (expt 2 3) (expt 2 3)) ;; => #t
+(eqv? 'yes 'yes) ;; => #t
+
+;; 'equal?' recursively compares the contents of pairs, vectors, and strings,
+;; applying eqv? on other objects such as numbers and symbols.
+;; A rule of thumb is that objects are generally equal? if they print the same.
+
+(equal? '(1 2 3) '(1 2 3)) ;; => #t
+(equal? #(a b c) #(a b c)) ;; => #t
+(equal? 'a 'a) ;; => #t
+(equal? "abc" "abc") ;; => #f
+
+;; In Summary:
+;; eq? tests if objects are identical
+;; eqv? tests if objects are operationally equivalent
+;; equal? tests if objects have same structure and contents
+
+;; Comparing strings for equality
+(string=? "Hello" "Hello") ;; => #t
+
+
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+; 6. Control Flow
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+
+;; Conditionals
+(if #t ;; test expression
+ "True" ;; then expression
+ "False") ;; else expression
+ ;; => "True"
+
+(if (> 3 2)
+ "yes"
+ "no") ;; => "yes"
+
+;; In conditionals, all values that are not '#f' are treated as true.
+;; 0, '(), #() "" , are all true values
+(if 0
+ "0 is not false"
+ "0 is false") ;; => "0 is not false"
+
+;; 'cond' chains a series of tests and returns as soon as it encounters a true condition
+;; 'cond' can be used to simulate 'if/elseif/else' statements
+(cond ((> 2 2) "not true so don't return this")
+ ((< 2 5) "true, so return this")
+ (else "returning default")) ;; => "true, so return this"
+
+
+;; A case expression is evaluated as follows:
+;; The key is evaluated and compared with each datum in sense of 'eqv?',
+;; The corresponding clause in the matching datum is evaluated and returned as result
+(case (* 2 3) ;; the key is 6
+ ((2 3 5 7) 'prime) ;; datum 1
+ ((1 4 6 8) 'composite)) ;; datum 2; matched!
+ ;; => composite
+
+;; case with else clause
+(case (car '(c d))
+ ((a e i o u) 'vowel)
+ ((w y) 'semivowel)
+ (else 'consonant)) ;; => consonant
+
+;; Boolean expressions
+;; 'and' returns the first expression that evaluates to #f
+;; otherwise, it returns the result of the last expression
+(and #t #f (= 2 2.0)) ;; => #f
+(and (< 2 5) (> 2 0) "0 < 2 < 5") ;; => "0 < 2 < 5"
+
+;; 'or' returns the first expression that evaluates to #t
+;; otherwise the result of the last expression is returned
+(or #f #t #f) ;; => #t
+(or #f #f #f) ;; => #f
+
+;; 'when' is like 'if' without the else expression
+(when (positive? 5) "I'm positive") ;; => "I'm positive"
+
+;; 'unless' is equivalent to (when (not <test>) <expr>)
+(unless (null? '(1 2 3)) "not null") ;; => "not null"
+
+
+;; Loops
+;; loops can be created with the help of tail-recursions
+(define (loop count)
+ (unless (= count 0)
+ (print "hello")
+ (loop (sub1 count))))
+(loop 4) ;; => hello, hello ...
+
+;; Or with a named let
+(let loop ((i 0) (limit 5))
+ (when (< i limit)
+ (printf "i = ~a\n" i)
+ (loop (add1 i) limit))) ;; => i = 0, i = 1....
+
+;; 'do' is another iteration construct
+;; It initializes a set of variables and updates them in each iteration
+;; A final expression is evaluated after the exit condition is met
+(do ((x 0 (add1 x ))) ;; initialize x = 0 and add 1 in each iteration
+ ((= x 10) (print "done")) ;; exit condition and final expression
+ (print x)) ;; command to execute in each step
+ ;; => 0,1,2,3....9,done
+
+;; Iteration over lists
+(for-each (lambda (a) (print (* a a)))
+ '(3 5 7)) ;; => 9, 25, 49
+
+;; 'map' is like for-each but returns a list
+(map add1 '(11 22 33)) ;; => (12 23 34)
+
+
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+; 7. Extensions
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+
+;; The CHICKEN core is very minimal, but additional features are provided by library extensions known as Eggs.
+;; You can install Eggs with 'chicken-install <eggname>' command.
+
+;; 'numbers' egg provides support for full numeric tower.
+(require-extension numbers)
+;; complex numbers
+3+4i ;; => 3+2i
+;; Supports fractions without falling back to inexact flonums
+1/3 ;; => 1/3
+;; provides support for large integers through bignums
+(expt 9 20) ;; => 12157665459056928801
+;; And other 'extended' functions
+(log 10 (exp 1)) ;; => 2.30258509299405
+(numerator 2/3) ;; => 2
+
+;; 'utf8' provides unicode support
+(require-extension utf8)
+"\u03BBx:(\u03BC\u0251.\u0251\u2192\u0251).xx" ;; => "λx:(μɑ.ɑ→ɑ).xx"
+
+;; 'posix' provides file I/O and lots of other services for unix-like operating systems
+;; Some of the functions are not available in Windows system,
+;; See http://wiki.call-cc.org/man/4/Unit%20posix for more details
+
+;; Open a file to append, open "write only" and create file if it does not exist
+(define outfn (file-open "chicken-hen.txt" (+ open/append open/wronly open/creat)))
+;; write some text to the file
+(file-write outfn "Did chicken came before hen?")
+;; close the file
+(file-close outfn)
+;; Open the file "read only"
+(define infn (file-open "chicken-hen.txt" open/rdonly))
+;; read some text from the file
+(file-read infn 30) ;; => ("Did chicken came before hen? ", 28)
+(file-close infn)
+
+;; CHICKEN also supports SRFI (Scheme Requests For Implementation) extensions
+;; See 'http://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-implementers.html" to see srfi's supported by CHICKEN
+(require-extension srfi-1) ;; list library
+(filter odd? '(1 2 3 4 5 6 7)) ;; => (1 3 5 7)
+(count even? '(1 2 3 4 5)) ;; => 2
+(take '(12 24 36 48 60) 3) ;; => (12 24 36)
+(drop '(12 24 36 48 60) 2) ;; => (36 48 60)
+(circular-list 'z 'q) ;; => z q z q ...
+
+(require-extension srfi-13) ;; string library
+(string-reverse "pan") ;; => "nap"
+(string-index "Turkey" #\k) ;; => 3
+(string-every char-upper-case? "CHICKEN") ;; => #t
+(string-join '("foo" "bar" "baz") ":") ;; => "foo:bar:baz"
+
+
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+; 8. Macros
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+
+;; A 'for .. in ..' iteration like python, for lists
+(define-syntax for
+ (syntax-rules (in)
+ ((for elem in alist body ...)
+ (for-each (lambda (elem) body ...) alist))))
+
+(for x in '(2 4 8 16)
+ (print x)) ;; => 2, 4, 8, 16
+
+(for chr in (string->list "PENCHANT")
+ (print chr)) ;; => P, E, N, C, H, A, N, T
+
+;; While loop
+(define-syntax while
+ (syntax-rules ()
+ ((while cond body ...)
+ (let loop ()
+ (when cond
+ body ...
+ (loop))))))
+
+(let ((str "PENCHANT") (i 0))
+ (while (< i (string-length str)) ;; while (condition)
+ (print (string-ref str i)) ;; body
+ (set! i (add1 i))))
+ ;; => P, E, N, C, H, A, N, T
+
+;; Advanced Syntax-Rules Primer -> http://petrofsky.org/src/primer.txt
+;; Macro system in chicken -> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/chicken-users/2008-04/msg00013.html
+
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+; 9. Modules
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+
+;; Also See http://wiki.call-cc.org/man/4/Modules
+
+;; The 'test' module exports a value named 'hello' and a macro named 'greet'
+(module test (hello greet)
+ (import scheme)
+
+ (define-syntax greet
+ (syntax-rules ()
+ ((_ whom)
+ (begin
+ (display "Hello, ")
+ (display whom)
+ (display " !\n") ) ) ) )
+
+ (define (hello)
+ (greet "world") ) )
+
+;; we can define our modules in a separate file (say test.scm) and load them to the interpreter with
+;; (load "test.scm")
+
+;; import the module
+(import test)
+(hello) ;; => Hello, world !
+(greet "schemers") ;; => Hello, schemers !
+
+;; We can compile the module files in to shared libraries by using following command,
+;; csc -s test.scm
+;; (load "test.so")
+
+;; Functors
+;; Functors are high level modules that can be parameterized by other modules
+;; Following functor requires another module named 'M' that provides a function called 'multiply'
+;; The functor itself exports a generic function 'square'
+(functor (squaring-functor (M (multiply))) (square)
+ (import scheme M)
+ (define (square x) (multiply x x)))
+
+;; Module 'nums' can be passed as a parameter to 'squaring-functor'
+(module nums (multiply)
+ (import scheme) ;; predefined modules
+ (define (multiply x y) (* x y)))
+;; the final module can be imported and used in our program
+(module number-squarer = (squaring-functor nums))
+
+(import number-squarer)
+(square 3) ;; => 9
+
+;; We can instantiate the functor for other inputs
+;; Here's another example module that can be passed to squaring-functor
+(module stars (multiply)
+ (import chicken scheme) ;; chicken module for the 'use' keyword
+ (use srfi-1) ;; we can use external libraries in our module
+ (define (multiply x y)
+ (list-tabulate x (lambda _ (list-tabulate y (lambda _ '*))))))
+(module star-squarer = (squaring-functor stars))
+
+(import star-squarer)
+(square 3) ;; => ((* * *)(* * *)(* * *))
+
+```
+## Further Reading
+* [CHICKEN User's Manual](http://wiki.call-cc.org/man/4/The%20User%27s%20Manual).
+* [RSR5 standards](http://www.schemers.org/Documents/Standards/R5RS)
+
+
+## Extra Info
+
+* [For programmers of other languages](http://wiki.call-cc.org/chicken-for-programmers-of-other-languages)
+* [Compare CHICKEN syntax with other languages](http://plr.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/plr/launch.py)