CSCI.4430/6969 Programming Languages-- Fall 2003

Instructions For Running Scheme:

We have placed two flavors of Scheme into the class directory on the CS system: Dr. Scheme and Petit Chez Scheme. This page describes how to find the files and run the interpreter, and how to install a copy of the download in your RCS account or your personal Linux box, should you find yourself feeling adventurous. While you may of course develop your programs with whichever Scheme interpreter you like, please note that we will be trying them out on Dr. Scheme when we grade, so you should probably make sure that your programs run in that environment before submitting them.

Instructions, short form.

This assumes that you're familiar with the *nix environment and whichever shell you are running.

The Scheme directory is /projects/proglang03/scheme. plt_{solaris|linux} is the Dr. Scheme directory, and pcs6.0a_solaris is the PCScheme directory. The runnable interpreters are
/projects/proglang03/scheme/plt_{solaris|linux}/bin/mzscheme and
/projects/proglang03/scheme/pcs6.0a_solaris/custom/petit. You may set your $PATH to point to the directories containing the interpreter of your choice, or write a script that will set its $PATH and run Scheme with your favorite command-line arguments, or anything else that you prefer.

If you would like to install a copy of one of the distributions, the distribs directory contains tarballs. Tarballs of both distributions include readme files, which explain how to install, and both installations worked for us out of the box.

Instructions, longer form.

If you know how to add paths to your $PATH environment variable on startup:

Add the directory /projects/proglang03/scheme/plt_solaris/bin to your $PATH in your startup file.
The interpreter is mzscheme.

Otherwise:

From your home directory, edit your .bashrc:
$ vi ~/.bashrc
or some other editor if you do not like vi (ya heretic!).
Modify the line which says:
PATH=`/servers/common/bin/defaultpath`
to read:
PATH=`/servers/common/bin/defaultpath`:\ /projects/proglang03/scheme/plt_solaris/bin
The \ escapes the newline, and permits one logical line to span several physical lines. Not required, but keeps your .bashrc looking neater. And we all want neat-looking startup scripts, don't we?
Since this points to a Solaris distribution, you will have to run Scheme while logged into a Sun. This may be one of the CS lab Suns, or remotely, from solaris.remote.cs.rpi.edu.
Save your .bashrc and say:
$ source .bashrc
to your shell.
$ mzscheme
will now run the interpreter. The next time you log in, your startup script will be run automatically, so the source will only be necessary the first time.

Last Updated -- September 5, 2003.