On Sun, 2009-09-13 at 21:59 -0400, Aaron W. Hsu wrote:
> The REPL is a tool, no more. It is a very useful tool, but nothing about
> the REPL actually makes Scheme Scheme. Scheme enables the creation and use
> of these nice tools, such as REPLs, but it's the nature of the language,
> as others have pointed out, that is important. We must not confuse tools
> and lot's of extra convenient implementation features with the *language*.
FWIW, this is all true of the ability to run programs prepared as
files, too. It's just a tool. It's a very useful tool, but nothing
about it actually makes Scheme, Scheme. ....
Look. If you're talking about the language, it's okay, I guess, to
disrespect modes of using it as outside the scope of the language.
But if modes of use are outside the scope of the language, then
all of this stuff about libraries and so on, which of course favor
a particular mode of use over others, deserves another look too,
doesn't it?
Trust that for some people the REPL *is* the most central mode of
use for the language, the one without which they'd have no use for
it whatsoever, in exactly the same way that running a prepared/
edited program is the most central mode of use for others.
Bear
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