This page covers how to do some OCaml-ish and Haskell-ish things in Scheme, and how to get Scheme-ish continuations in OCaml. * You can [try Scheme in your web browser](http://tryscheme.sourceforge.net/). This is useful if you don't have Racket or another Scheme implementation installed---but don't expect it to have all the bells and whistles of a mature implementation! * **Type Variants and Pattern Matching** If you want to reproduce this kind of OCaml code: # type lambda_expression = Var of char | Lam of char * lambda_expression | App of lambda_expression * lambda_expression;; # let rec free_vars (expr : lambda_expression) : char list = match expr with | Var label -> [label] | Lam (label, body) -> remove label (free_vars body) | App (left, right) -> merge (free_vars left) (free_vars right);; # free_vars (Lam ('x', (App (Var 'x', Var 'y'))));; - : char list = ['y'] in Scheme, you have two choices. First, the quick hack: ; we use the symbols 'var and 'lam as tags, and assume ; that an expression will always be a pair of one of these forms: ; (cons 'var symbol) ; (cons (cons 'lam symbol) expression) ; (cons expression expression) (define (free-vars expr) (cond [(eq? (car expr) 'var) (list (cdr expr))] [(and? (pair? (car expr)) (eq? (car (car expr)) 'lam)) (remove (cdr (car expr)) (free-vars (cdr expr)))] [else (merge (free-vars (car expr)) (free-vars (cdr expr)))])) Second, you can create real datatypes and pattern-match on them. There are several tools for doing this. I'll describe the `define-datatype` and `cases` forms developed for the book *Essentials of Programming Languages* (EoPL) by Friedman and Wand. (Alternatives include [the `struct` form in Racket](http://docs.racket-lang.org/guide/define-struct.html). Also `define-record-type` from srfi-9 and srfi-57; see also [the r6rs libs](http://docs.racket-lang.org/r6rs-lib-std/r6rs-lib-Z-H-7.html).) Here is how the tools from EoPL work. You must begin your file either with `#lang eopl` or with the first two lines below: #lang racket (require eopl/eopl) (define-datatype lambda-expression lambda-expression? (var (label symbol?)) (lam (label symbol?) (body lambda-expression?)) (app (left lambda-expression?) (right lambda-expression?))) (define (free-vars expr) (cases lambda-expression expr (var (label) (list label)) (lam (label body) (remove label (free-vars body))) (app (left right) (remove-duplicates (append (free-vars left) (free-vars right)))))) (free-vars (lam 'x (app (var 'x) (var 'y)))) ; evaluates to '(y) * Scheme has excellent support for working with implicit or "first-class" **continuations**, using either `call/cc` or any of various delimited continuation operators. See [the Racket docs](http://docs.racket-lang.org/reference/cont.html?q=shift&q=do#%28part._.Classical_.Control_.Operators%29). In Scheme you can use these forms by default (they're equivalent): (call/cc (lambda (k) ...)) (let/cc k ...) If your program declares `(require racket/control)`, you can also use: (begin ... (reset ... (shift k ...) ...) ...) (begin ... (prompt ... (control k ...) ...) ...) (begin ... (prompt ... (abort value) ...) ...) These last three forms are also available in OCaml, but to use them you'll need to compile and install Oleg Kiselyov's "delimcc" or "caml-shift" library (these names refer to the same library), which you can find [here](http://okmij.org/ftp/continuations/implementations.html#caml-shift). You'll already need to have OCaml installed. It also helps if you already have the findlib package installed, too, [as we discuss here](http://lambda.jimpryor.net/how_to_get_the_programming_languages_running_on_your_computer/). If you're not familiar with how to compile software on your computer, this might be beyond your reach for the time being. But assuming you do manage to compile and install Oleg's library, here's how you'd use it in an OCaml session: #require "delimcc";; (* loading Oleg's library this way requires the findlib package *) (* if you don't have findlib, you'll need to start ocaml like * this instead: ocaml -I /path/to/directory/containing/delimcc delimcc.cma *) open Delimcc;; (* this lets you say e.g. new_prompt instead of Delimcc.new_prompt *) let p = new_prompt ();; let prompt thunk = push_prompt p thunk;; let foo = ... prompt (fun () -> ... shift p (fun k -> ...) ... (* or *) control p (fun k -> ...) ... (* or *) abort p value ... ) ... There is also a library for using *undelimited* continuations in OCaml, but it's shakier than Oleg's delimited continuation library.